Category Archives: Allgemein

Allgemein, GraphQL

Niryo with Unity3D and the Automation Gateway…

The Digital Twin is Alive 🙂 #Unity3D, the #Niryo Robot, and the Automation Gateway Frankenstein with #GraphQL for #PLC4X …

#ModBus data from the Robot can now be used in #Unity for visualisation and also to control the Robot from Unity …

The Unity Package GraphQL for OPCUA is now not only for OPCUA anymore, it can also handle other types which are supported by the Automation Gateway – like the Plc option, which is based on PLC4X.

Allgemein, Frankenstein

Display OPC UA data via GraphQL in a HTML page …

Here is a simple HTML page which fetches data from the OPC UA Automation Gateway “Frankenstein”. It uses HTTP and simple GraphQL queries to fetch the data from the Automation Gateway and display it with Google Gauges. It is very simple and it is periodically polling the data. GraphQL can also handle subscription, but then you need to setup a Websocket connection.

<html>
  <head>
   <script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.gstatic.com/charts/loader.js"></script>
   <script type="text/javascript">
      google.charts.load('current', {'packages':['gauge']});
      google.charts.setOnLoadCallback(drawChart);

      var data = null
      var options = null
      var chart = null

      function drawChart() {

        data = google.visualization.arrayToDataTable([
          ['Label', 'Value'],
          ['Tank 1', 0],
          ['Tank 2', 0],
          ['Tank 3', 0],
        ]);

        options = {
          width: 1000, height: 400,
          redFrom: 90, redTo: 100,
          yellowFrom: 75, yellowTo: 90,
          minorTicks: 5
        };

        chart = new google.visualization.Gauge(document.getElementById('chart_div'));

        chart.draw(data, options);
      }

      function refresh() {
        const request = new XMLHttpRequest();
        const url ='http://localhost:4000/graphql';
        request.open("POST", url, true);
        request.setRequestHeader("Content-Type", "application/json");
        request_data = {
            "query": `{ 
              Systems {
                unified1 {
                  HmiRuntime {
                    HMI_RT_5 {
                      Tags {
                        Tank1_Level { Value { Value } }
                        Tank2_Level { Value { Value } }
                        Tank3_Level { Value { Value } }                          
                      }
                    }
                  }
                }
              }
            }`
        }
        request.send(JSON.stringify(request_data));

        request.onreadystatechange = function() {
          if (this.readyState==4 /* DONE */ && this.status==200) {
            const result = JSON.parse(request.responseText).data
            const x = result.Systems      
            data.setValue(0, 1, x.unified1.HmiRuntime.HMI_RT_5.Tags.Tank1_Level.Value.Value);
            data.setValue(1, 1, x.unified1.HmiRuntime.HMI_RT_5.Tags.Tank2_Level.Value.Value);
            data.setValue(2, 1, x.unified1.HmiRuntime.HMI_RT_5.Tags.Tank3_Level.Value.Value);
            chart.draw(data, options);
          } 
        }
      }

      setInterval(refresh, 250)
    </script>

  </head>
  <body>
    <div id="chart_div" style="width: 400px; height: 120px;"></div>
    <!--<button name="refresh" onclick="refresh()">Refresh</button>-->
  </body>
</html>
Allgemein, Frankenstein

How to log OPC UA tag values to Apache Kafka…

In this article we use the Frankenstein Automation Gateway to subscribe to one public available OPC UA server (milo.digitalpetri.com) and log tag values to Apache Kafka. Additionally we show how you can create a Stream in Apache Kafka based on the OPC UA values coming from the milo OPC UA server and query those stream with KSQL.

Setup Apache Kafka

We have used the all-in-one Docker compose file from confluent to quickly setup Apache Kafka and KSQL. Be sure that you set your resolvable hostname or IP address of your server in the docker-compose.yml file. Otherwise Kafka clients cannot connect to the broker.

KAFKA_ADVERTISED_LISTENERS: PLAINTEXT://broker:29092,PLAINTEXT_HOST://192.168.1.18:9092

Setup Frankenstein

Install Java 11 (for example Amazon Corretto) and Gradle for Frankenstein. Unzip Gradle to a folder and set your PATH variable to point to the bin directory of Gradle.

Then clone the source of Frankenstein and compile it with Gradle:

git clone https://github.com/vogler75/automation-gateway.git
cd automation-gateway/source/app
gradle build

There is a example config-milo-kafka.yaml file in the automation-gateway/source/app directory which you can use by setting the environment variable GATEWAY_CONFIG. 

export GATEWAY_CONFIG=config-milo-kafka.yaml

In this config file we use a public Eclipse Milo OPC UA server. The Id of this connection is “milo“.

OpcUaClient:
  - Id: "milo"
    Enabled: true
    LogLevel: INFO
    EndpointUrl: "opc.tcp://milo.digitalpetri.com:62541/milo"
    UpdateEndpointUrl: false
    SecurityPolicyUri: http://opcfoundation.org/UA/SecurityPolicy#None
    UsernameProvider:
      Username: user1
      Password: password

Here is the configuration of the Kafka Logger where you can configure what OPC UA tags should be published to Kafka. In that case we use a OPC UA Browse Path and a wildcard to use all variables below one node. 

Database:
  Logger:
    - Id: kafka1
      Type: Kafka
      Enabled: true
      Servers: server2:9092
      WriteParameters:
        QueueSize: 20000
        BlockSize: 10000
      Logging:
        - Topic: opc/milo/path/Objects/Dynamic/+

Start Frankenstein

export GATEWAY_CONFIG=config-milo-kafka.yaml
gradle run

Create a Stream in KSQL

Start a CLI session to KSQL on the host where the Kafka containers run: 

docker exec -ti ksqldb-cli ksql http://ksqldb-server:8088

Create a stream for the Kafka “milo” topic

CREATE STREAM milo(
  browsePath VARCHAR KEY, 
  sourceTime VARCHAR, 
  value DOUBLE, 
  statusCode VARCHAR
) WITH (
  KEY_FORMAT='KAFKA',
  KAFKA_TOPIC='milo', 
  VALUE_FORMAT='JSON',
  TIMESTAMP='sourceTime',TIMESTAMP_FORMAT='yyyy-MM-dd''T''HH:mm:ss.nX'
);

Then you can execute a KSQL query to get the stream of values from the OPC UA server:

ksql> select browsepath, sourcetime, value from milo emit changes;
+---------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+
|BROWSEPATH                             |SOURCETIME                             |VALUE                                  |
+---------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+
|Objects/Dynamic/RandomInt32            |2021-05-02T11:29:04.405465Z            |1489592303                             |
|Objects/Dynamic/RandomInt64            |2021-05-02T11:29:04.405322Z            |-6.3980451035323023E+18                |
|Objects/Dynamic/RandomFloat            |2021-05-02T11:29:04.405350Z            |0.7255345                              |
|Objects/Dynamic/RandomDouble           |2021-05-02T11:29:04.405315Z            |0.23769088795602633                    |

Allgemein, Frankenstein

Automation Gateway with Apache IoTDB…

The Frankenstein Automation Gateway can now write OPC UA tag values to the Apache IoTDB. Did some rough performance tests with 50 OPC UA servers and one IoTDB… the IoTDB is pretty impressive fast. Also the data model and terminology is interesting and it seems to fit good to a hirarchical structure in OPC UA.

In this lab I have connected 50 OPC UA servers (based on a .NET OPC UA server example) to Frankenstein. Each OPC UA server publishes 1000 tags of different type, so in summary we have 50000 tags connected to Frankenstein. The publish rate can be adjusted by setting an OPC UA tag. Sure, we do that via GraphQL over Frankenstein. On my commodity hardware I ended with writing about 250Khz to the IoTDB with an CPU load of ~200%. So, I assume the IoTDB is able to handle much more value changes per second.

Figured out that one DB Logger inside of Frankenstein roughly is able to handle 100000 events per second. We can spawn multiple DB Logger for scalabilty. Vert.X can then use multiple cores (Vert.X calls this pattern the Multi-Reactor Pattern to distinguish it from the single threaded reactor pattern).

Just to note: there is only a memory buffer implemented, so if the DB is down, then the values will be lost if the buffer runs out of space. But I think to handle such situations it would make sense to put Apache Kafka between the Gateway and the Database.

GraphQL Query to set the simulation interval:

query ($v: String) {
  Systems {
    opc1 { Demo { SimulationInterval { SetValue(Value: $v) } } }
    opc2 { Demo { SimulationInterval { SetValue(Value: $v) } } }
    opc3 { Demo { SimulationInterval { SetValue(Value: $v) } } }
    opc4 { Demo { SimulationInterval { SetValue(Value: $v) } } }
    opc5 { Demo { SimulationInterval { SetValue(Value: $v) } } }
    opc6 { Demo { SimulationInterval { SetValue(Value: $v) } } }
    opc7 { Demo { SimulationInterval { SetValue(Value: $v) } } }
    opc8 { Demo { SimulationInterval { SetValue(Value: $v) } } }
    opc9 { Demo { SimulationInterval { SetValue(Value: $v) } } }
    ...
  }
}
Query Variables: {"v": "250"}
Allgemein

Let’s Encrypt Certificate with WinCC OA on Windows

This is a manual way to get and use Certificates from Letsencrypt with the Webserver (ULC UX) in WinCC Open Architecture. You have to update the certificate manually before it expires.

  • Temporarily configure IIS (HTTP) to get a new certificate via WIN-ACME
  • Download Win-ACME, it is a Letsencrypt Client for Windows + IIS
  • Set “PrivateKeyExportable” to TRUE! in settings.json of Win-ACME!
  • Execute Win-ACME wacs.exe and follow the instructions for fist setup.
  • Execute wacs.exe --renew --baseuri https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/ to renew a certificate.

  • Export Root Certificate as PEM:
  • Save Root Cert as root-cert.pem to the WinCC OA project config directory.

  • Export the Host Certificate with “certlm”
  • Convert Certificate from PFX to Certificate and Private-Key
openssl pkcs12 -in [yourfile.pfx] -nocerts -out keyfile-encrypted.key
openssl rsa -in keyfile-encrypted.key -out privkey.pem
=> Save to config/privkey.pem

openssl pkcs12 -in [yourfile.pfx] -clcerts -nokeys -out certificate.pem
=> Save to config/certificate.pem
Allgemein

MQTT and GraphQL Gateway for OPC UA

Here is an OPC UA gateway with which you can access your OPC UA values via MQTT and GraphQL (HTTP). If you have an OPC UA server in your PLC, or a SCADA system with an OPC UA server, you can query data from there via MQTT and GraphQL (HTTP). In addition, the gateway can also log value changes from OPC UA nodes in an InfluxDB. The archived values can then also be queried via GraphQL.

Open-source

Runs anywhere: Linux, Windows, Mac, …

Example MQTT Client:

Example MQTT Topics:

opc/unified/node/1/16.687.1.0.0.0
opc/unified/node:Value/1/16.687.1.0.0.0
opc/unified/node:Pretty/1/16.687.1.0.0.0
opc/unified/path/Tags/HMI_Tag_3
opc/oa/node:Value/2/ExampleDP_Float.ExampleDP_Arg1
opc/oa/node:value/2/ExampleDP_Float.ExampleDP_Arg1
opc/oa/node:Json/2/ExampleDP_Float.ExampleDP_Arg1
opc/oa/node:json/2/ExampleDP_Float.ExampleDP_Arg1

Example GraphQL Queries:

Here are some Videos/Demos:

Allgemein

Mount Disk Image on Linux

If you have created a backup of a disk with dd:

dd if=/dev/sdb of=image.img bs=4096

then you can create loop back devices with partitions:

losetup -f -P ./image.img 
losetup -a

then you can mount partition:

mount /dev/loop0p1 /mnt/disk

Another hint: Copy files with tar so that permissions and users are persevered:

tar cf - . | (cd /destination; tar xvf -)

tar cf - . | ssh root@server2 "tar xf - -C /destination/"

Allgemein

How to enable remote docker API…

Create a file “override.conf” in /etc/systemd/system/docker.service.d

[Service]
ExecStart=
ExecStart=/usr/bin/dockerd -H fd:// -H tcp://0.0.0.0:2376

Reload and restart the Docker daemon:

systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl restart docker.service

Now you can connect for example the Siemens Industrial Edge Publisher to the Docker engine and create a Industrial App from images on your Docker host.