Quick Start Guide
In this guide you will connect a Siemens PLC to the SDA console via a Raspberry Pi which hosts the SDA Gateway application. You will need to configure the PLC beforehand to assign an IP address. This step only has to be performed once, afterwards you can use the SDA console to interact with the PLC.
Setup Gateway
Requirements: You will need the following equipment to get started:
Raspberry Pi 3B+ or newer with Raspberry Pi OS 64 bits
Or any Linux device or VM, see specific requirements
SSH connection to Raspberry Pi
Once the PLC has been set up with an IP address, the gateway can be created on the Raspberry Pi. The gateway allows you to see the PLC online in the SDA console.
Create the Gateway in the SDA Console
Generate SDA Account
In order to get started with setting up your gateway, you first need to create an account to access the SDA console.
1. Go to https://www.softwaredefinedautomation.io/
2. Click on Start free trial, enter your details, and click Submit to receive access to the SDA Console.
3. Check your Email for the confirmation code and enter it in the form.
4. You now have access to the SDA console and should see the following screen:
Generate a new gateway
In order to set up a gateway, navigate to the Gateways pane and click "+" (Add New Device).
2. Under "Add New Device" choose "Gateway".
3. Select VERSION 2 for VPN-based connection, choose a name and click "Save".
Selecting UDP or TCP depends on your firewall requirements.
4. To configure the gateway in your hardware, click on the command box to automatically copy the it to your clipboard.
Please note that the command is only valid for 60 minutes.
Configure the Gateway
(Optional) Install with Docker via FLECS
Install, update and configure the SDA Gateway Raspberry Pi
Make sure to previously run sudo apt update in the command line.
Paste and execute the command you copied from the SDA Console. This command downloads and executes a shell script that automatically sets up the gateway and connects it to the SDA console.
Attention, the command will ask for sudo permissions, enter your password if necessary.
The workflow should look like the following. At the end, a Success message is shown. If you encounter any error, make sure your OS matches the requirements, or contact the SDA team.
Once you have executed the connection string, you should be able to see the connected gateway in the SDA Console.
The status Gateway to SDA Cloud shows if the VPN tunnel from the SDA platform to the PLC can be established. After creating a new SDA account and configuring your first Gateway, it will show a red mark ❌ until we finish launching a connectivity server for your tenant.
Please, run the connectivity diagnostics again after few minutes.
After the gateway is created and connected, you can add a control to the gateway. The gateway must be connected to the PLC via the Ethernet cable, and the PLC must have an IP address (see ).
Click on Add new control and set the parameters of your PLC.
After creating the control, the PLC should be connected. You can verify the connection by clicking on the Control Configuration tab.
Create / Upload project
After the PLC is connected, you can upload a project to the SDA console that is deployed to the PLC in the next section.
Create / Upload project
Download the following Siemens S7 file that is preconfigured for the PLC.
In the SDA Console, back in the Projects tab, select Create new project.
Give a name and a description to the project, select Siemens and the IDE version (TIA Portal v17). Drag or select the.zap17 file. This project, once it is deployed, will trigger the LEDs to blink from left to right. Click Create Project.
Add tags to your project to facilitate identifying it!
Deploy Project
In your project list you can see all the projects linked to your account. You can deploy the project by clicking Deploy and adjusting the deployment settings.
This will trigger a deployment job that runs in the background. Although it will forward you to the deployment status page, you can continue with other tasks while the deployment job is running.
Once the deployment succeeds, you're going to see its successful state.
You can monitor the progress of all deployments in the Deployment/Backup History tab.
You should now see the LEDs of your hardware setup blinking slowly from left to right.
Deploy a new Project
Now we can deploy a new version of the project. Download the following file:
Click on the project options and select New project version.
Select file, add a comment that represents the changes and click on Create.
Click on Project Versions, check if the new version is there, if not, click on reload. Then, click to deploy the latest version to the PLC.
Follow with the same procedure from the last deployment. Once succeeded, the LEDs will start to blink faster!
You can go back to the project versions and keep switching the deployments!
Deploy via the API
You can also deploy files via the API, e.g. using the following Jupyter Notebook. Feel free to try it out!
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