Ignition SCADA Questions

Bullzi

Lifetime Supporting Member
Join Date
Jun 2012
Location
Colorado
Posts
1,530
Hi Everyone,
Looking at a new job and they want to use Ignition SCADA. I have never used Ignition before so I am looking for Pointers on how to get started. I have used FTV SE before so I have that knowledge but not sure it helps :)
Project Details:
1. The Customer is buying the Licenses for the Software.
2. This will be a network distributed project.

Here are some questions:
1. Do I need to buy a "Development" License to develop the project? I will be developing off site on my own computer.
2. If I wanted to get some hands on training where would you recommend?
3. Any "Gotcha's" that I should be aware of? Mostly looking for things that I need to account for in my quoting.

Thanks for your time!!!
 
Hi Everyone,
Looking at a new job and they want to use Ignition SCADA. I have never used Ignition before so I am looking for Pointers on how to get started. I have used FTV SE before so I have that knowledge but not sure it helps :)
Project Details:
1. The Customer is buying the Licenses for the Software.
2. This will be a network distributed project.

Here are some questions:
1. Do I need to buy a "Development" License to develop the project? I will be developing off site on my own computer.

No. You can download and install it simply by registering. It will run in trial mode and you will have to reset the trial timer every two hours, but you can repeat that step indefinitely.

2. If I wanted to get some hands on training where would you recommend?

Inductive University is outstanding for online training. I have trained myself using it, and have not attended any classes in person, but I have heard only good things about those classes.

https://inductiveuniversity.com/courses/all

3. Any "Gotcha's" that I should be aware of? Mostly looking for things that I need to account for in my quoting.

Thanks for your time!!!

Once you register, you will probably be contacted by an account manager who can assist you with planning. They make it pretty easy to figure out the costs and offer limited packages if your needs are significantly smaller than their standard offerings. We have only used small single client systems so far, and with a limited number of tags, it ends up about half the cost of their "Foundation" package.

I can't think of any real "gotchas". You do purchase drivers separately in groups, and if you need alarm notification that is a separate purchase (email alerts). We have some customers with both alarm notification and the voice notification module which is another add-on module, but works very well.
 
Hi Everyone,
I have used FTV SE before so I have that knowledge but not sure it helps :)

Forget what you learned.

While Ignition is very easy, powerful and feature-rich you can easily start heading down the wrong path before you know it. Depending on your overall SCADA experience, you may want to pay IA's design services for some consulting work to get you started.
 
I love Ignition, I am developing a Scada system for an Oil & Gas producer. We are using MQTT to communication with all of our Remote units.

One thing that makes Ignition so powerful, is because of the many ways you can incorporate "Python Scripting".(So you may need a python book, but easy to learn)

Just start with Ignition university and join the forum, I ask questions all the time and they have some great people there.
 
Hi Everyone,
Looking at a new job and they want to use Ignition SCADA. I have never used Ignition before so I am looking for Pointers on how to get started. I have used FTV SE before so I have that knowledge but not sure it helps :)
Project Details:
1. The Customer is buying the Licenses for the Software.
2. This will be a network distributed project.

Here are some questions:
1. Do I need to buy a "Development" License to develop the project? I will be developing off site on my own computer.
2. If I wanted to get some hands on training where would you recommend?
3. Any "Gotcha's" that I should be aware of? Mostly looking for things that I need to account for in my quoting.

Thanks for your time!!!




Is this an oil and gas project?


#1 thing, get familiar with SQL and python. You cant truly unlock the power of Ignition without some familiarity with those 2.
 
Hi Everyone,
Looking at a new job and they want to use Ignition SCADA.

Smart customer ;)

I did my first Ignition project last year, and my honest opinion is that Ignition leaves every other SCADA package in the dust. I can't count the number of times I went "I wonder if I can do this in Ignition, only to find that the answer was "well, yes, but you don't actually need to in Ignition because it's done automatically for you, or there are three or four even simpler or more elegant solutions available." Phrog is right, after you use Ignition you'll never want to go back.

I started off with exactly zero knowledge of Ignition, zero knowledge of python, and only a basic handle on SQL. I went through their online Inductive University, and after that was 90% able to do whatever I needed to do. The other 10%, I posted on the Ignition forums, and invariably got fast, accurate and helpful responses, often directly from the developers that write the software.

Get a head start on the Inductive University stuff now, and when it comes time to develop you'll find yourself wishing you'd tried Ignition five years ago :)


Edit: the only gotcha I (almost) got caught out with was that the Historian module doesn't include an SQL database. You have to provide it with an SQL database to run. You can use the free version of MSSQL (Express) if 10GB is enough for your purposes, or there are other options out there (MySQL, Oracle, etc) though I don't know if any of them are free. Ignition supports basically any SQL database with a JDBC driver (which is most of them) - there's a full list in their technical documentation, which is all freely available online. Though, if the customer is supplying all the licenses, they're likely all over this as well and it's not your problem regardless. But just for future reference :)
 
Last edited:
Edit: the only gotcha I (almost) got caught out with was

I agree with everything you said, after using Ignition, I never wanted to go back to standalone like FTME or FTSE (not ignoring Wonderware or Archestra... def. want Ignition over those).

The one gotcha that might be fixed now, is the JAVA problem. For awhile you needed to get tricky on how to get JAVA Runtime (its been awhile) to work. You could hack around and make it work with windows updates etc. but it was annoying. I believe the newest versions left Java client stuff behind, but is still pretty JAVA based.

When I got out of the Ignition world they just developed EDGE (with 500 tag limit? Why... I think it's now unlimited.) and talk of going HTML5 for clients. Either way, Ignition has pretty solid support and the online university (free) is pretty awesome. I'll note the license can be pretty steep, I remember about a year ago wanting to make a home automation system with it and they started the talk around $10,000 for a license. Then again, I could have been talking to the wrong people.
 
Smart customer ;)

I did my first Ignition project last year, and my honest opinion is that Ignition leaves every other SCADA package in the dust. I can't count the number of times I went "I wonder if I can do this in Ignition, only to find that the answer was "well, yes, but you don't actually need to in Ignition because it's done automatically for you, or there are three or four even simpler or more elegant solutions available." Phrog is right, after you use Ignition you'll never want to go back.

I started off with exactly zero knowledge of Ignition, zero knowledge of python, and only a basic handle on SQL. I went through their online Inductive University, and after that was 90% able to do whatever I needed to do. The other 10%, I posted on the Ignition forums, and invariably got fast, accurate and helpful responses, often directly from the developers that write the software.

Get a head start on the Inductive University stuff now, and when it comes time to develop you'll find yourself wishing you'd tried Ignition five years ago :)


Edit: the only gotcha I (almost) got caught out with was that the Historian module doesn't include an SQL database. You have to provide it with an SQL database to run. You can use the free version of MSSQL (Express) if 10GB is enough for your purposes, or there are other options out there (MySQL, Oracle, etc) though I don't know if any of them are free. Ignition supports basically any SQL database with a JDBC driver (which is most of them) - there's a full list in their technical documentation, which is all freely available online. Though, if the customer is supplying all the licenses, they're likely all over this as well and it's not your problem regardless. But just for future reference :)

MySQL is still free...
 
Bullzi!

In a nutshell everything is possible in ignition but as Diat and Pauly said you need to understand SQL and Python.

You will not regret using it. I have done some unconventional things with it and now every other software package leaves me wishing it was Ignition
 
MySQL is still free...

As is MariaDB (they forked MySQL when Oracle acquired them, and who can blame them?). They've been gaining ground as the tend to put more functionality out than MySQL.

PostgreSQL is also free and a good choice. I moved to it from MySQL and haven't looked back.
 
Almost forgot. If you're running the db on a Linux platform, punctuation matters. If you get into the habit of using lower case for columns, it won't matter if it's Windows or Linux.

Just wanting to save you some headaches that I went through. :)
 

Similar Topics

Dear all, I am considering using Ignition SCADA for the first time and I have some questions. The first question is if it exclusively using OPC...
Replies
7
Views
6,679
Hey Everyone, I need to Interface Ignition SCADA ethernet network to an Allen Bradley SLC5/04 Serial RS232 DF1. Has anyone out there found a low...
Replies
4
Views
932
I can't seem to find a clear answer on this. Say you have a plc and an hmi with ignition to control the plc(and of course all other things you do...
Replies
12
Views
5,095
Hi all, Looking for recommendations on some ethernet cameras suitable for hygienic/washdown areas, that I can embed into an Ignition SCADA...
Replies
5
Views
2,301
Hello All, I've not tried Ignition yet but it looks good. It looks to be aimed at factory level automation so I was wondering if anyone is using...
Replies
8
Views
3,521
Back
Top Bottom