IEC 60870-5-104 Driver

Overview

Every monitoring type in common use is covered: single and double point status, step position, normalized, scaled, and float measured values, integrated totals for counters, and packed and bitstring statuses. Timestamped types keep the server's own time. Discovery runs a general interrogation and a counter interrogation, so the RTU supplies the point list rather than an engineer transcribing addresses from a vendor document. After that the server reports changes as they happen, keeping latency short and traffic low. Periodic interrogation can be enabled as a backstop for slow-moving values and for counters a server will not report. Quality descriptors are decoded rather than left as a bit field: invalid becomes a fault, not-topical stale, substituted overridden, blocked down. Operators judge a value as they would any other Niagara point. This is a monitoring driver, read-only by design. Runs on a JACE or a Supervisor, licensed perpetually against the Niagara Host ID.

List of FAQs

Can the driver send commands or setpoints? No. It is read-only by design, so a Niagara station cannot operate plant on the telecontrol network. On critical infrastructure that is usually the point: monitoring, trending, and reporting can be added without opening a new control path. If a project genuinely needs commands, get in touch and we will discuss it. Can Niagara act as an IEC 60870-5-104 server? Not with this driver. It is a client, so it connects out to RTUs and gateways and collects their data. It does not present Niagara data upwards to a SCADA master. If you need that direction, tell us what the master expects and we will advise. Does it support IEC 60870-5-101 or -103? No. This is the -104 variant, which runs over TCP/IP. The -101 serial variant and the -103 protection-equipment variant are separate standards and are not covered. If the site is serial only, tell us and we will look at what is possible. How do I know my RTU or gateway is compatible? It needs to offer IEC 60870-5-104 over TCP/IP and to answer a general interrogation, which covers most modern RTUs, substation gateways, and PLCs with a 104 interface. If you are not sure, send us the vendor's interoperability document and we will check it. Do I have to enter the point list by hand? No. Discovery asks the server for everything it holds, through a general interrogation for status and measured values and a counter interrogation for integrated totals, and builds the list from the reply. Points can still be created manually where a server does not answer interrogation fully. Which data types are supported? Single point and double point status, step position, measured values in normalized, scaled, and short-float form, integrated totals, packed single point, and bitstring status, each in its variants with and without a timestamp. Status types become boolean or enum points and the rest become numeric points.