Connecting a Machine to the Ardexa Device

This section of the documentation will detail how to connect your machine(s) to the Ardexa Device, and what setup parameters need to be configured for a successful connection.

Before you begin, make sure that:

  1. The Ardexa Device is connected to the Internet, and can be seen in the Ardexa App as online (detailed instructions can be found here).

  2. The machine(s) is set up, functioning properly, and ready to be connected to the Ardexa Device.

If you or your company manage your own installations of the Ardexa Agent onto the Ardexa Device, make sure it has been loaded onto the Device, and that the Device can be seen in the Ardexa App as online, meaning it is configured correctly.

Terminology

In this section of the documentation, the following terminology will be used extensively.

  • The machine is referring to the equipment, servers, machines, etc. from which data is to be collected (e.g. databases, sensors, solar inverter, SCADA, PLCs, etc.).

Machines can sometimes be used in conjunction with one another, so for example several machines may be connected to a logger, SCADA, PLC, or other system, which is then connected to Ardexa. These special cases are illustrated in diagrams in the sections below.

  • The Ardexa Device is the computer running the Ardexa Agent, to which the machine will connect.

An important fact to keep in mind is that the Ardexa Device is not referencing a specific hardware model as the Ardexa Agent is hardware agnostic and therefore can be loaded on many different types of devices. This means that some connection solutions will only apply if the device has the hardware support (e.g. two Ethernet ports).

What communications interface does the machine(s) have?

pageTCP (Ethernet)

Select TCP if the machine(s) will communicate via TCP using an Ethernet connection.

pageSerial (RS-485, RS-422, RS-232)

Select Serial if the machine(s) will communicate via a serial line connection. This includes USB (Universal Serial Bus) connections.

pageOthers (Bluetooth, etc.)

Select Others if your machine(s) will communicate via some other method, e.g. Bluetooth.

These three interfaces are not mutually exclusive and can be used in parallel with one another if the Ardexa Device supports the necessary communication interfaces.

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