MindConnect Hardware Release Notes¶

General

Insights Hub provides a highly reliable system, however the MindConnect can be affected by system internal incidents.
The MindConnect system sends data into the Insights Hub. If the data provider (e.g. OPC server) is not available a value "0" with a bad quality code will be sent up. To see the quality code in the IoT model it is necessary that the quality code is always turned on at the creation of aspects.
We recommend to use an OPC UA server as data source with a certificate.
For a connection to Insights Hub Region China 1 the MindConnect Nano/IoT2040 has to have a firmware V3.3.00.04. or higher.

MindConnect Software Agent¶

What's new?

Within this release MindConnect Software Agent is also available as Docker AARCH64 (Possible to install on a Simatic IoT2050) version. A Debian installer can be downloaded and installed on a device. There the Docker container will be installed and started automatically. These files are available for x86 and AARCH64 systems. The base functionality will be the same as the already released MindConnect Software Agent for Windows, Docker x86 and Docker AARCH64.
Within this release MindConnect Advanced Driver Extension is enhanced with support for BACnet Protocol. This enable the customer to connect to BACnet devices. This feature will be able to browse devices and send data BiDirectional (which means we can write from Cloud to Device). BACnet is not supported by MCSA for Hyper-V (Windows), and MCSA for Docker V3.6.2.x. It is currently supported by MCSA for Docker for ARM64 (aarch64) only starting with V03.06.20.00 b002.

Known issues:

File transfer needs to be re-configured after firmware update, if it had been configured before.
If you have used MindConnect Software Agent V03.06.00.00 b008 for a longer time, it is recommended to install a newer MindConnect Software Agent version by using the InstallShield setup, instead of updating the firmware by either online, or firmware update.
InstallShield setup has to be used to install an older MindConnect Software Agent version. This is because, the downgrade to an older version is currently not supported MindConnect Software Agent.
Old MindConnect Software Agent installations have to be uninstalled before new MindConnect Software Agent version can be installed by using the InstallShield setup, in case of an upgrade setup will show a message and abort afterwards.
Encrypted onboarding is not possible in this release
While adding, modifying, or removing an MindConnect Software Agent (MCSA) VM in MCSA setup all running MCSA VMs will be stopped and re-started after the setup process has finished
During setup of the MindConnect Software agent you will be prompted for the memory usage. As the default is quite high (16GB), please adapt this to your needs.
If you do an installation update, this will be not asked again, so you have to adapt it within the HyperV application.
On OPCUA plugin, array item based write functionality is not supported.

What's new?

Within this release MindConnect Advanced Driver Extension is enhanced with support for BACnet Protocol. This enable the customer to connect to BACnet devices. This feature will be able to browse devices and send data BiDirectional (which means we can write from Cloud to Device).

Known issues

IO shield read is limited to digital inputs
Modbus RTU: RS422 / 485 devices are not supported
Buffer behavior: "Chronologic upload" is not supported
After the network is reconfigured it can take some time until the data can be read again

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Last update: June 26, 2023