Organizing your data points with Industrial IoT entities - Industrial IoT 5.0.2.0 | BACnet | Modbus | OPC Client | SNMP Manager

Industrial IoT Plugin Guide 5.0.2.0
Applies to
Industrial IoT 5.0.2.0 | BACnet | Modbus | OPC Client | SNMP Manager
Last updated
2023-03-20
Content type
Guides > Plugin and extension guides
Language
English
Product
Industrial IoT
Version
5.0

To simplify the configuration and management of the data points you want to monitor, you can create entities to group them logically. This is useful when you only want to monitor a few data points from a single device or consolidate data points from multiple devices.

What you should know

In the context of Industrial IoT, an entity is a virtual device used to represents a set of data points that can belong to a single or multiple devices. You can create an entity to represent a data point of one device, or multiple data points of multiple devices, possibly of different types. The entities you create are more easily represented on maps. From a configuration perspective, you can do with entities everything you can do with devices. The only difference between devices and entities is that a device is tied to one protocol while an entity is not. An entity frees you from the physical boundaries of devices.

Procedure

  1. From the Config Tool home page, open the Plugins task.
  2. Select the Industrial IoT plugin role from the entity browser.
  3. Click the Entities tab and click Add an entity ().
    The Add an entity dialog box opens.
  4. Enter the following information:
    Name
    A unique name used to identify this entity in your system.
    Type
    (Optional) The entity type to apply as a model for this entity. Entity types define the common properties, such as states, data points, events, and actions shared by a group of entities. Using a entity type simplifies your configuration work. Entity types are defined in the Entity types page of the Industrial IoT plugin role.
    NOTE: If you select None, you must manually add the common properties to the entity in Security Center.
  5. Click Add > Apply.
    The entity is displayed in the entity browser, nested under the Industrial IoT plugin. If the entity inherits data points from multiple devices, the entity is displayed as a child of all the devices it inherits data points from.
  6. Select from the entity browser, the entity you just created, and click the Properties tab.
  7. If you didn't use an entity type, or if you want to add non-inherited properties to this entity, do it now.
    NOTE: The following are the things you can do and the behavior you should expect:
    • You can only add to an entity, data points and events that belong to a real device. The device you take the data point from is called the source device.
    • You can rename the data points and events taken from real devices.
    • You can add properties (states, data points, events, actions) that were not inherited from an entity type.
    • If a property directly added to the entity is later added to the entity type, it will be added a second time to the entity. However, the first instance of the property will be renamed with a suffix "_n" to differentiate it from the inherited one.
    • If you delete an inherited property, you effectively cut all ties between the entity and its entity type. Further modifications to the entity type will no longer affect the entity.

Example

Example 1: A device that has many components

You have a lighting controller that controls 100 light fixtures. Each light fixture is in a different room of a building. Each light fixture has a toggle switch.

You want to monitor which light fixtures are ON and which are OFF from Security Desk maps.

Do the following:

  • Create a device named LightController01.
  • Create 100 data points named LightSwitchn, where n is a unique number to identify the switch, such as LightSwitch001, LightSwitch002, LightSwitch100. Select the type Boolean for the ON and OFF states.
  • Create an entity named LightFixturen, where n is a unique number; such as: LightFixture001, LightFixture002, LightFixture100.
  • Add each LightSwitch data point to the corresponding LightFixture entity. For example: Add LightSwitch001 to LightFixture001.
  • Place each light fixture entity on the floor map of your building.

You can now see which lights are ON and which are OFF on the map.

Example 2: A device that has many components, each component has multiple inputs

You have a lighting controller that controls 100 light fixtures. Each light fixture is in a different room of a building. Each light fixture has a dimmer switch that also turns the light on and off.

You want to monitor the light fixtures from Security Desk maps so that you can see which are OFF, which lights are ON, and how bright or dim the lights are.

Do the following:
  • Create a device named LightController02.
  • Create two data points for each light fixture, for a total of 200 data points.
    • 100 data points named LightSwitchn, where n is a unique number to identify the switch, such as LightSwitch101, LightSwitch102, LightSwitch200. Select the type Boolean for the ON and OFF states.
    • 100 data point named DimmerSwitchn, where n is a unique number, such as DimmerSwitch101, DimmerSwitch102, DimmerSwitch200. Select the type Integer, where 0 is no light and 100 is full brightness.
  • Create an entity named LightFixturen, where n is a unique number; such as: LightFixture101, LightFixture102, LightFixture200.
  • Add each LightSwitch data point and each DimmerSwitch data point to the corresponding LightFixture entity. For example: Add LightSwitch101 and DimmerSwitch101 to LightFixture101.
  • Place each LightFixture entity on the floor map of your building.

You can now see on the floor map which lights are ON, which are OFF, and the level of the dimmer.

Example 3: Create an entity from numerous sensors

You want to create a weather station that collects data from temperature, humidity, air pressure, and wind speed sensors at a site. You want to see all of the data collected at the weather station on your Security Desk map.

Do the following:

  • Create a device named WeatherStationMontreal.
  • Create the following four data points:
    • Temperature of the type INT16.
    • Humidity of the type UINT.
    • AirPressure of the type UINT.
    • Wind speed of the type UINT.
  • Create an entity named WeatherStationMontreal and add all four data points to it.
  • Place the WeatherStationMontreal entity on the map in the Map Designer task.

You can now monitor the weather in Montreal from your map in Security Desk.

Example 4: Monitor multiple sensors from a single dashboard

You have multiple sensors located along a gas pipeline that crosses the country. Each sensor measures the speed of the gas flowing through the pipe. You want to monitor the flow of gas along the entire length of the pipeline.

Create the following:

  • A device named GasSensorn for each sensor, where n is a unique number that identifies the sensor.
  • A data point named GasFlow of the type a INT16.
  • An entity named GasFlowingInPipeline01 and add all of the GasSensor devices.
  • A dashboard for the GasFlowingInPipeline01 entity.

The dashboard shows the speed of gas at each sensor.

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