UNS View: How to use it?

Ignition Modules MQTT Modules
1

Hi Guys,

I saw the announcement on ICC, very exciting stuff! Alarm management on the edge is legend.
Auto-converting to a uns flat MQTT version is legend.
So great stuff!

I’m just wondering a few things. On stage, there was said ‘No more copying the tags to a reference structure’. But to eliminate that, I do see some extra hurdles.

  • The tags in MQTT Engine are non-persistent. They are removed when a gateway restarts if I’m correct. So If I configure history on those tags, it could be that tomorrow they will lose that configuration. Is that still the case?
  • You where using udt’s in the example. I’ve always avoided that as much as possible in MQTT Engine, because you will only see updates for new udt’s when you remove their current udt. Is that still the case?
  • Also a question for the UNS transmitter: Can you choose what sparkplug devices you want to convert? And can you choose if they are published all persistent or not?
  • And this might been told on stage, but I don’t remember it, when will this UNs publisher be released? 8.3?
2

On your questions - I’m taking your bullets in order and numbering them:

  1. This behavior has not changed. What people were doing before is creating a ‘uns like structure’ via reference tags in another tag provider. I should note two things about this. Configuration on Engine tags is only lost of the tag is manually deleted. If it is simly a restart of the module or Ignition, once the tag comes back in via a BIRTH message, the config (including history config) is rebound to the tag. However, you are correct in that the tag will not appear until that initial BIRTH message arrives. I should also note we may be in a position to add Engine side tag persistence in Ignition 8.3.

  2. There is no change to this behavior. If you change a UDT at the Edge, you must delete the definition at the Engine side to allow it to be recreated. In addition, we recommend versioning the UDT names so transitions in environments with many Edge Nodes can be done in a staggered way.

  3. Not yet. But, filtering and more granular controls are coming.

  4. The UNS Transmitter will be available in Transmission 4.0.25 and is in the nightly here now: Nightly Module Builds - MQTT Modules for Ignition 8.x - Confluence. We’re hoping to have 4.0.25 modules out before the end of Oct 2024.