The FairCom Siemens S7 connector service allows reading and writing data tags to and from industrial devices, such as PLCs, that use the Siemens S7 communication protocol. Once the FairCom server collects data from a Siemens S7 device, it automatically stores it for later use in analytics, forward the data to dashboards or other devices, or transform the data into a format compatible with devices that use a different protocol. This functionality turns raw data into a powerful asset that data scientists and engineers can use for a wide range of sophisticated applications that move beyond basic monitoring.

Note A tag is a named data point. For example, a tag named temperature represents the location in a  device where the temperature value can be collected from or delivered to. FairCom Edge also associates each tag with an integration table. When a data point is collected, FairCom Edge stores the tag in a newly inserted, timestamped record in the table. A tag is always stored in the record as a JSON property in the source_payload field, such as "temperature": 70. The FairCom server automatically delivers the contents of the source_payload  field as an MQTT message to the table's MQTT topic. Additionally, the tag may be optionally stored as a field in the table, such a field named temperature. This is useful for engineers who run SQL queries on the collected data for analytics.

Delivering data from Siemens PLCs

Upon collection, FairCom Edge can instantly deliver the processed data to multiple destinations, such as publishing MQTT messages to various topics, sending data to REST endpoints, writing to other devices, and delivering to cloud platforms.