Features
The following table gives an overview of the TC3 IoT Data Agent features. The features can be categorized as follows:
- General: Basic features of the TC3 IoT Data Agent, e.g. sampling patterns, etc.
- Gates: Supported cloud services and protocols, e.g. ADS, MQTT, OPC UA, etc.
- Data Format: Supported data formats when sending/receiving data to/from a cloud service
- Symbol: Supported data types and additional symbol-related features
Gates
| Description | Version |
|---|---|---|
ADS | ADS devices can be used either via symbolic access or Igrp/Ioff combination. TwinCAT 2/3 I/O channels as well as TwinCAT 2/3 PLC runtimes, TwinCAT 3 TcCOM modules and BC Controllers can be accessed via ADS. | 0.7.0.1 and above |
OPC UA | The TC3 IoT Data Agent can connect to any OPC UA server that supports the opc.tcp transport channel. In addition, OPC UA certificates and username/password authentication can be used to secure the communication channel to the server. | 0.7.0.1 and above |
MQTT | Generic MQTT message brokers can be used to send/receive data. The message broker needs to support the MQTT TCP transport (no web socket connections are supported at the moment). TLS 1.2 can be used to secure the communication channel either via CA certificate, a client certificate or via a PSK. | 0.7.0.1 and above |
Microsoft Azure IoT Hub | Public cloud service by Microsoft. Can be used to send/receive telemetry data. The communication channel is secured via the primary or secondary key of the IoT Hub device. The device can be created on the Azure IoT Hub configuration website. In addition, the Azure IoT Hub Device Twin service can be used to update the twin document or retrieve desired updates by backend applications. | 0.7.0.1 and above 1.3.2.1 and above for Device Twin feature |
AWS IoT | Public Cloud service by AWS. Can be used to send/receive data. Configuration is based on specific settings in MQTT gate. TLS 1.2 with a client certificate is mandatory to secure the communication channel. The certificate can be obtained on the AWS IoT configuration website. | 0.16.2.2 and above |
Data formats
| Description | Version |
|---|---|---|
ADS binary | Binary ADS data format. Can be used for send/receive operations. | 0.7.0.1 and above |
Simple JSON | “Flat” JSON format which consists of a timestamp and key/value pairs that represent the variables. Can be used for send/receive operations. | 0.16.2.2 and above |
TwinCAT JSON | Common JSON data format in all TwinCAT IoT and Analytics products as well as the EK9160. See separate documentation article about TwinCAT IoT JSON data format specification. Can be used for send/receive operations. | 0.7.0.1 and above |
TwinCAT Analytics | Common binary data format in all TwinCAT Analytics products as well as the EK9160. | 0.26.2.8 and above |
Symbols
| Description | Version |
|---|---|---|
Simple data types | Simple data types are supported: Int16, Int32, Int64, UInt16, UInt32, Float, Double, … | 0.7.0.1 and above |
Strings | Strings are supported | 0.7.0.1 and above |
Arrays | Arrays with simple and complex data types are supported for publish direction | 1.2.17.7 and above |
Structured Types | Structured types are supported for publish direction | 1.2.17.7 and above |
Trigger Symbol | TriggerSymbols can be used to set up a “send on demand” use case | 0.8.2.21 and above |
Type Conversion | Type conversion can be used to convert between different data types | 0.8.2.21 and above |
Multi-link | Link one subscriber symbol with multiple publisher symbols. (not the other way around) | 0.24.1.4 and above |
Units | Units are supported as meta-data on a symbol. This setting depends on the data format and gate. | 0.26.2.8 and above |
Rounding float types | Rounding of float types to a specified amount of decimal places is supported | 1.3.2.1 and above |