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Get started with SIA Connect: A Step-By-Step guide

How to get started step by step

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  • Getting started
    Introduction to SIA Technical info Portal - Web App (UI) SIA Connect as Software
  • Using SIA
    Connectors Instances Items Mapping Scripting & Variables Data
  • Connectors
    Siemens S7 Azure Ethernet/IP Mitsubishi MELSEC OPC-UA Server SQL MQTT Omron Host Link REST API Omron FINS Keyence Beckhoff TwinCAT BACnet Virtual OPC-UA Client MS SQL File
  • Developers
    API documentation Shadow API
  • Tutorials & Guides
    Azure IoT Hub Siemens S7 AWS IoT Core - Amazon Web Services Microsoft Power BI SIA Connect Demo Rack AVEVA Insight Azure IoT Central
+ More

Articles in this section:

  • Minimum requirements for using SIA
  • Get started with SIA Connect: A Step-By-Step guide
  • Supported Clouds & IoT messaging
  • Supported Industrial & Buildings devices
  • Supported databases
  • SIA Glossary

Table of Contents

1. Power on SIA2. Connect your computer to SIA3. Create user & login to the portal4. Install the first Connector5. Add the first instance and item6. (Gateway) Creating mappings & data connections7. Backup & export the configuration


This will guide you through the steps of getting started with SIA Connect in a few sequential steps.

Click the according to check the details for a given step. Links in the according will guide you to articles with more in-depth guides.


1. Power on

Prerequisites

  • 1x power supply (12V to 24V) that can be connected to screw terminal

Unpack SIA Connect and power it up with a 12V or 24V supply.

Check Wiring & peripherals for information how to connect the ‍power supply. 




Success

The LED under "Power" in the front panel is on the device is powered on.


2. Connect your computer to SIA Connect

Prerequisites

  • 1x Ethernet cable (CAT5 or higher)
  • 1x computer with ethernet port (Windows, Mac OS X or Linux)

  1. Connect your computers ethernet port to the units X1 ethernet port using a ethernet cable. Check Wiring & peripherals ‍for locating ethernet port X1.
  2. Configure your computers network to in the same subnet as SIA by following Network configuration of client computer‍. We recommend to set your IP to 10.20.30.100 in order to access the unit on 10.20.30.40.
  3. Validate your network configuration and that you can access the unit

Success

You can ping 10.20.30.40 the default IP of SIA and access the portal at http://10.20.30.40 


3. Create user & login to the portal

Prerequisites

  • Web browser installed on your computer (check Introduction to the platform‍ for compatible browsers)
The portal requires a user to login. Therefore you will need to create an user before being able to access the portal.

  1. Navigate to the portal at http://10.20.30.40.
  2. Create a user by following Add a user to the platform‍ 
  3. Login with the created user


Success

You can login to the portal at http://10.20.30.40 and see the overview according to Introduction to the platform‍ 


4. Install the first Connector

Prerequisites

  • Having a Connector (.sia extension) to install

A Connector defines how to interface and communicate to an instance such as a physical device or a virtual device as a cloud. You will therefore needs to know what you need to connect to in order to identify what Connectors you need. For examples if you have a Siemens S7 PLC you want to publish data to Azure you will need the Connectors for Siemens S7 and Azure IoT Hub as you have two instances with different communication interface. On the other hand if you only need to log data from the Siemens S7 locally on the unit you only need the one Connector.

  1. Install the Connector by follow Install Connectors‍ 
  2. (Opt.) Upload any required files such as certificates and public/private keys


Success

The Connector appear on the list and you can now add an Instance that makes use of it.


5. Add the first instance and item

Now we need to add the very first instance to communicate with along with items. That could for example be a Siemens S7 PLC or the Azure IoT Hub together with PLC tags. The instance on SIA Connect is a virtual representation of the connection and instance while the items is a representation of a variable (PLC) or communication tunnel (Cloud).

  1. Add a instance by following Add Instances‍ 
  2. Add a item to the instance by following Add Items‍ 
  3. Redo step 1 & 2 to continue add as many items and instances as you need
  4. Check out its data by View historical stored data in graph if you configured it to log the data


6. (Gateway) Creating mappings & data connections

To make SIA Connect acts as a gateway or protocol router we need to setup and configure a mapping between two items.
Mappings is a tunnel and link between two items where data can be connected such as from a PLC to a Cloud or from a PLC to another PLC.

You can create a mapping between any instances and items and you can further more use the flexibility of customization your own payloads & messages. Customizing the messages is very useful when interfacing clouds and database where you often wrap the data values into JSON/XML payload or SQL commands.

To create a mapping do the following:

  1. Create the instances and items which you want to tunnel & map the data between. Check Step 5 if you haven't done this by now.
  2. Make a mapping between the two items from the different instances by following Add Mapping‍ 
    1. Customize the payload or message if necessary. Check out View historical stored data in graph


7. Backup & export the configuration

After successful configuration of the unit it is recommended to make a backup and export its configuration.

By generating a backup of the units configuration you can always replicate the exact same setup. This is very useful in case of an accident or if you need to replicate the configuration to other similar systems.

To create a backup of the configuration do the following:

  1. Follow the export steps in the Export & Import configuration ‍article.


To learn more about SIA Connect and how to use it please check the following sections:

  • Learn how to use SIA Connect
  • Configuring and troubleshooting of connectors
  • Examples with tutorials and guides


getting started step-by-step quick start quick manual

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  • Supported Clouds & IoT messaging
  • SIA Glossary
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