Welcome back to our Summer of IoT blog series! This week, we are excited to announce the release of OmniServer Version 3.4.0.1 which in the professional edition, now includes MQTT client capability, which enables publishing data to MQTT Brokers such as the Cogent DataHub Smart Broker, HiveMQ, Mosquitto, and others.
In case you are not already familiar with OmniServer, it is a universal data acquisition software application that is commonly used to retrieve information from a wide range of devices that use 'non-standard' protocols to communicate, such as weigh scales, barcode readers, and printers but also any device with a documented manufacturer specific protocol using serial, Ethernet, LPT printer port, and USB (via virtual COM port) connections. Data is then typically delivered by OmniServer to HMI, SCADA, MES, & Historian systems using standard protocols like OPC DA, OPC UA, & AVEVA Suitelink.
OmniServer solves the problem of accessing data from these 'non-standard' devices by taking care of all the polling and data parsing from those devices for you without the use of any scripting or custom code. With OmniServer, data that would otherwise be unavailable to your operations (OT), IT, & business systems can now be accessed, helping you make better and more informed decisions with the potential to lower costs and downtime while increasing efficiency and profitability. And now, that benefit is expanded even further with the addition of MQTT.
OmniServer is updated several times a year to implement additional useful features and tools, and to resolve any known issues as part of our continuous improvement process. In this post, I will cover the latest release of OmniServer, which enhances the usability of the OmniServer Professional Edition, by adding the ability to publish to MQTT Brokers through the newly added MQTT Client Plug-In.
MQTT continues to grow in popularity and its implementation within the industrial automation community. As we learned in our first installment of this blog series, MQTT (Message Queueing Telemetry Transport) is a lightweight messaging protocol designed for efficient bandwidth usage, making it perfect for devices with limited connectivity options. It is used widely for Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) integration of edge devices across a wide variety of industries around the world. Utilizing a straightforward publish/subscribe model, MQTT allows clients to publish information to a central broker, which then distributes this information to other subscribed clients.
The OmniServer Professional Edition already includes plug-ins for logging process data from non-standard devices to any ODBC-compliant database, creating text/CSV files (including Microsoft Excel), sending fully configurable emails, and inputting data via keystrokes into any Windows program.
With the OmniServer MQTT Plug-In in V3.4.0.1 Professional Edition, for a small incremental cost over the Server Edition, you can now securely publish process data from your non-standard devices to any MQTT Brokers that are used in the IoT marketplace.
Just as with the other OmniServer Plug-Ins, the MQTT Client Plug-In offers various trigger conditions to activate publishing data to the MQTT broker quickly when you want it to be sent based on process and business needs. These triggers include options for sending new values, non-zero values or non-empty strings, exceeding high or falling below low limits, and more. The plug-in includes options for precise configuration of reset actions to ensure comprehensive recording of all trigger occurrences before publishing to your broker. Configuring the reset action will assist in avoiding missed or duplicate publishing.
As expected, our MQTT Client incorporates Quality of Service (QoS) mechanisms to guarantee dependable communication, enhance performance, and preserve data integrity across diverse network conditions and application requirements.
The Plug-In also includes crucial features like username/password authentication and user-configurable MQTT Client IDs.
- Username/password authentication ensures the security of your MQTT network by verifying that your MQTT broker recognizes OmniServer as an authorized client.
- The user-configurable Client IDs allow you to assign meaningful identifiers to each MQTT client connection, making it easier to organize and manage multiple devices within the same MQTT network. This customization supports scalability and efficient resource allocation across large-scale IoT deployments.
Finally, the OmniServer MQTT Client Plug-In offers various payload format types to structure and transmit data efficiently such as JSON, Key Value, and Custom models.
- JSON (JavaScript Object Notation): consists of key-value pairs enclosed within curly braces {}. Each key represents an identifier or attribute, and its associated value. This format is popular due to its simplicity, flexibility, and human-readable nature, making it easy to parse and understand by both machines and developers.
- Key Value: simplifies data exchange with straightforward pairs of identifiers and values, ideal for straightforward, compact data transmissions.
- Custom: allows flexibility by accommodating specific application needs, enabling tailored data structures and protocols.
The newly introduced OmniServer MQTT Client Plug-In aims to enhance your automation processes through the use of IoT technologies. When paired with our Cogent DataHub MQTT Smart Broker, the MQTT Client Plug-In enables OmniServer to integrate your automation hardware data with more systems in our connected world than ever before! And if you need advanced MQTT capabilities like Sparkplug and advanced JSON parsing, you can also pair the Cogent DataHub MQTT Smart Client with the regular OmniServer Server Edition instead. Talk to us about your needs!
Valid support and maintenance holders are entitled to free software upgrades. You can confirm your support and maintenance period under Help -> About in the Omniserver configuration. If your period displays a date from July 2024 or in the future, you're covered and the updated free trial installer will allow you to update your installation. If you wish to upgrade but do not currently have a support/maintenance agreement for your OmniServer, or you would like to upgrade to the Professional Edition, please contact us with your license information to receive a quote.
To see this feature in action, please check out our video demonstration on how to configure the OmniServer MQTT Client Plug-In to publish data to your MQTT Broker. Don't forget to subscribe to our blog for the latest updates, how-to videos, and other resources for OmniServer and our other solutions. As always, please feel free to contact our technical team Monday-Friday, 8AM to 5PM US Eastern Time.
Ready to integrate your non-standard industrial hardware with MQTT Brokers? Download OmniServer today!
