Hi All.

Just after your thoughts:

I will be involved in a project where I've been tasked with displaying molding machine information in a production environment. Given the company's stance and direction, they're not inclined to invest in a full-fledged SCADA system, so we can set that aside.

I believe the best approach would be to utilize a PLC (either Siemens or Schneider), with Node-RED serving as the HMI software, which will be displayed on a large TV screen within the production environment.

Here's a basic overview of the process:
1.Molding machine information is initially transmitted to a PLC.
2.The PLC subsequently relays this data to an SQL database.
3.Simultaneously, the information is transferred to an industrial PC running Node-RED via OPCUA.
4.The PC is configured to run a Node-RED dashboard specific to that particular molding machine.
5.Finally, a basic HDMI cable connects the PC to the TV, enabling the required information to be displayed.

Does my thinking for the top level Architecture seem correct? If not can you provide an alternative.

Thanks

 

An alternative could be the use of IndigoSCADA.
It supports OPC UA protocol.
It is available here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/indigoscada/

 

Is the PLC necessary? The industrial PC running NodeRed may be able to directly communicate with the Molding Machine (using Modbus, for example), then push data out to a cloud server (using MQTT, for example), while simultaneously serving up a dashboard on the display.

 

Is the PLC necessary? The industrial PC running NodeRed may be able to directly communicate with the Molding Machine (using Modbus, for example), then push data out to a cloud server (using MQTT, for example), while simultaneously serving up a dashboard on the display.

Thanks for your reply.
That is a very good points. The main reason why I’m interested in both is for the future there as been talk of adding a vision system to the moulding machine and additional automation to support the moulding process. So I figured thinking ahead it could be easier to have all the key equipment installed ready as a just in case.

but it is a good point you mention. You have used Nodered before?

 

I've done a similar project for an assembly line where the customer wanted to know the running status of each cell. I installed factoryTalk view runtime on a small PC and connected a large TV to it. I then created a single-page HMI application and communicated directly to the PLC.

I would avoid the database entirely and use OPC UA and web sockets to create a real-time dashboard in JavaScript using Node-RED.

You can create an OPC UA client in JS and subscribe to specific tags, when the tag value changes push the values to the frontend using a web socket.