Integrating Your Home Devices and PLCs with a Personal PI System: Exploring Options for Data Acquisition

As industrial data historians like OSIsoft PI become more accessible for learning and personal projects, many automation professionals and hobbyists are eager to bring real-world data from their homes or small labs into their own PI System environments. Tracking data such as home thermostat readings or electrical panel amperages for personal analysis is not only a fun project, but also an excellent way to build familiarity with PI development, data integration, and reporting features. But how can you actually connect home automation devices (like a Nest thermostat) or PLCs (like those from Allen Bradley) to your own PI System, particularly on a PI Dev or vCampus environment?

Understanding the Challenge: Tag Licensing and the PItoPI Interface

Traditionally, the OSIsoft PI licensing model restricts the use of vCampus or developer PI servers to simulation, learning, or development—not production use. These servers often don't support connecting to production data sources or increasing tag counts via purchase for external data acquisition. The common PItoPI interface, which synchronizes data from one PI system to another, is also typically reserved for customer/production environments.

Data Acquisition Strategies for Personal PI Systems

That doesn't mean you can't experiment. Here are some ways data can be brought into a personal PI System for learning and experimentation:

1. OPC (OLE for Process Control) Interfaces

• Why OPC?
  OPC is a widely adopted protocol for connecting industrial hardware (like Allen Bradley PLCs) to software applications, including PI. There are both OPC DA (Data Access) and OPC UA (Unified Architecture) standards.
• How-To:
  • Many PLCs provide or can be accessed via OPC servers.
  • OSIsoft offers a PI OPC DA Interface and a PI Connector for OPC UA.
  • On a developer system, you can experiment with simulated data using an OPC simulator, or real data if your licensing and connectivity allow.
• Developing with .NET:
  • The OPC Foundation provides sample clients and .NET libraries for building custom OPC clients.
  • For Allen Bradley PLCs, third-party .NET OPC clients work well and provide a playground to build, test, and visualize your applications before integrating with PI.

2. Other Data Collection Approaches

• Custom Connectors:
  • Develop a custom service or application (using PI SDK, AFSDK, or the PI Web API) to read data from home automation devices, web APIs, or other non-industrial sources.
  • Example: Use the Nest API (if available) to fetch thermostat data and push it to PI.
• Third-Party Tools:
  • You might use middleware like Node-RED for data orchestration, or open-source connectors that can bridge data from APIs or smart devices to CSV, which can then be ingested by PI using the PI UFL Interface.

3. Simulated Data for Learning

If direct hardware integration isn't possible due to licensing or permissions, simulated data lets you build and test the data infrastructure as if you were working with real devices. OSIsoft provides simulation interfaces, or you can generate values in code.

Is It Allowed?

• Licensing and Permissions:
  Typically, vCampus/dev PI servers are restricted to development and learning, not production or personal use. Check your EULA and vCampus agreement for specifics.
• Tag Licenses:
  It’s generally not possible to purchase extra tags or run connectors against a dev system for real-world data. For experimentation, simulated or test data is recommended.
• Community/Training License:
  If you’re interested in learning, OSIsoft (now part of AVEVA) often provides training resources with time-limited PI System sandboxes.

Typical Developer Workflow

1. Connect your data source:
   • For Allen Bradley PLCs: Use an OPC UA simulator or a real OPC server to access PLC data.
   • For smart devices: Find an available API or develop a polling/scraping tool.
2. Ingest the data into PI:
   • Use an appropriate PI interface or custom program.
   • Test with simulated data first.
3. Experiment with analysis, notifications, and visualization:
   • Use PI Vision or PI AF Analytics for reporting and dashboards.

Final Thoughts

Connecting real-world data to your PI System—whether from PLCs, smart home devices, or other sources—is an excellent way to learn about data historians, interface development, and many aspects of industrial IT and automation. While licensing and technical constraints may limit direct real-world data integration into PI vCampus/dev instances, simulated data and custom connectors provide a robust path for experimentation and skill building.

For further learning, explore the OPC Foundation’s .NET SDKs, OSIsoft’s PI Developers Club resources, and their official training content for hands-on labs.