Company
Date Published
Author
Atif Ali
Word count
686
Language
English
Hacker News points
None

Summary

Visualizing industrial IoT data becomes more accessible and cost-effective by using Telegraf plugins with the Grafana Cloud Hosted Prometheus service, especially in complex systems like Modbus-based PLCs. Traditionally, setting up such visualizations required substantial middleware and additional tools, but the integration of open-source tools such as Prometheus and Grafana simplifies the process. By leveraging Grafana Cloud, which combines metrics, logs, and traces into a single platform, users can utilize powerful observability software without the overhead of managing infrastructure. A demonstration involving a PLC simulator based on Codesys Control SoftPLC shows how data streams, like those from a simulated Refrigerator Controller, can be visualized using Grafana Cloud. The setup uses the Modbus Telegraf input plugin to collect data and the HTTP Telegraf output plugin to transmit it to the cloud. This approach offers a streamlined method for monitoring important parameters and provides a free tier for experimentation, allowing users to explore these capabilities without significant investment.