Data Source & Link Example

This example assumes you have already added a driver for Modbus TCP or Modbus TCP Gateway (for details, see Gateway and Direct Drivers).

First we ensure we have an asset named ‘PLC’ which is to be our data source, and an asset named 'Temperature Sensor' which is the sensor we need to link in.

1) Find the PLC asset.

2) Go to its details and in the Navigation box, click on 'Data Sources'.

3) Press 'Create' next to 'Actual Live' to create a new live data source.

4) Choose ‘Modbus/TCP’ (the type of communication channel the asset uses).

5) Fill in all of the channel-specific details needed to communicate to the source.

6) Then click ‘Create Source’ to build it.

Now that the data source is configured, we need to link our information.

1) Go to the temperature sensor asset. Click ‘Show More’ so that we can see the Temperature property.

2) Click the range, minimum and maximum values to set the correct span for the input.

3) To the left of the property name is a downward arrow. Click on it and a popup menu will appear where we can click 'Link'.

4) Above is an example of the various sub-properties of the temperature that you can link to data.

The most commonly linked attribute here is ‘measurement’. The other options are rarely used unless you change your units or ranges frequently and wish to constantly update them.

By clicking on ‘Not Connected’, we start to link it to our data source.

5) Choose the asset you’d like to connect to.

6) Now fill in the details about the connection (these will change depending on what type of connection you are making)

7) Now finally press ‘Save Link’, and once saved you can hit the ‘Back To <assetname>’ link at the top of the screen.

By doing this we’ve created a brand new data source and linked our temperature into a real field device.

The same technique can be used for dozens of different communication methods and for other types of property too.