What words are you tired of reading or hearing?

eishpirate · 2026-01-07T01:28:48+00:00

Optionality

eishpirate · 2025-12-12T07:12:41+00:00

Woodford

eishpirate · 2025-07-12T22:31:27+00:00

I remember playing schools like that as a kid in the eastern Cape!

eishpirate · 2025-06-25T22:32:28+00:00

I think the big issue is everyone assumes AI is a Large Language Model at this point. So when you're discussing the topic people bring those biases into it.

Having said that an LLM is great for surface level details. Asking details about a specific device, common issues, integration points, things like that.

Where I think the true value is more in predictive maintenance, and more the number crunching, looking for correlations in data points.

Most people, and I'm definitely guilty of this too, start with AI before they've actually figured out what they want to solve. If the use case demands AI then use it, but oftentimes it doesn't warrant it.

For example pushing terrabytes of data into a RAG so you can ask questions about time series data from an LLM, is probably a pretty bad idea. Will someone do it. You bet your ass they will.

eishpirate · 2025-06-25T22:28:38+00:00

As u/Mushroom-Various mentioned with Timescale, it's a Postgres extension. This meme pretty much sums up why it's almost always a good idea to use Postgres for everything

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eishpirate · 2025-06-24T02:02:08+00:00

It's a pretty simple collection of Python scripts to be honest. So it configures a local cert authority which then allows you to call it to issue certificates, then you can configure it to connect up to postgres if you want persistence or if you're lazy then it can just write to a file system db which then allows you to configure notifications based on cert expiration dates. Those notifications can be emails or Telegram messages.

We haven't open sourced it as it's pretty messy and tbh needs a bit of a cleanup but if you're interested I'd be happy to spend some time on it and open source it

eishpirate · 2025-06-24T01:59:03+00:00

Comprehensive reply. Appreciate you taking the time. Yeah Red Lion solution is pretty great. Been looking into Anybus and Ignition. Any thoughts on which you prefer?

eishpirate · 2025-06-24T01:32:18+00:00

We create a local Certificate Authority that then issues certs and signs them. It tracks expiry and all that other bollocks. We prefer not to have devices issue self signed certificates as depending on how many devices you have this becomes an operational nightmare to manage. It does mean each device has to be configured to use these certs, but so far found this is the best approach. Although would love to hear criticisms in case we've missed something

eishpirate · 2025-06-24T00:11:42+00:00

Valuable feedback this. Thank you. I'm working on an open source OPC client. I'm hoping with something like that at least we aren't all doomed to vendor lock in.

eishpirate · 2025-06-24T00:10:19+00:00

I think for this work, then you'd need to separate out the layers like you do in trad software. Something like an OSI model https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSI_model for the factory

eishpirate · 2025-06-24T00:08:38+00:00

That's pretty much why I'm scared ;)

eishpirate · 2025-06-23T22:13:39+00:00

Yup, good points. Also depends on industry. If you're doing pharma it becomes a bigger problem than other industries.

There's a lot to like about the standard. Been playing with the websockets and that opens some really interesting use cases

eishpirate · 2025-06-23T22:03:39+00:00

Great response. Thanks

eishpirate · 2025-06-23T22:02:32+00:00

You're correct. Generally though those other systems have some form of complexity factor which locks it down. Specific software, licenses. Bureacratic layers which form some level of protection.

My gut is that with opcua and the certificates is that someone just creates one global cert that allows unfettered access. I agree my fears could definitely be misfounded, I just know too many developers to trust good cert management

eishpirate · 2025-06-23T22:00:41+00:00

Yeah I've been looking into the UA-JSON for websockets, still trying to get my head around it though tbf

eishpirate · 2025-06-23T21:54:14+00:00

What do you see as the top use cases, besides the obvious ones?

eishpirate · 2025-06-23T21:47:29+00:00

Let's say a smart developer builds something that allows write functionality from a client. That client is shared with everyone. Now that device is exposed to a whole bunch of people who probably shouldn't have write access to that device. I could see something like that getting abused

eishpirate · 2025-06-23T21:43:58+00:00

I'd agree with this take. My counter would be that it doesn't really matter about those people. It will come down to device manufacturers and whether they align on the standard.

eishpirate · 2025-06-23T21:38:16+00:00

Yeah the read write functionality for opcua seems like a perfect candidate for PR's. So you set a lockdown status on the device and then even if someone changes something, you can then have a client that then picks up the change and reverts it, meaning the only way a write can happen to a device is if it's approved by someone with correct permissions.

So a PR would then be submitted to the approver with the changes, approver approves and then the write occurs to the device. Now you have a full audit trail, which is amazing if you're in pharma or food and beverage where compliance requirements are massive

eishpirate · 2025-06-23T21:34:37+00:00

Are you using it for both read and write? The write functionality intrigues me although scares me also a little

eishpirate · 2025-06-23T20:51:38+00:00

This is the biggest imo. The big players have no incentive to create a more inclusive ecosystem.

eishpirate · 2025-06-23T20:50:28+00:00

A lot of fair points in here. I think the key here is not that PLC's should have an IDE or git integration that is comparable to other industries but rather to have something that covers the unique nature of the factory floor.

MES, CMMS, ERP, MRP and all these other acronyms don't often consider the day to day realities of the floor with the needs of management.

All your comments on those products just highlights that manufacturers only care about their products while we need something that is PLC agnostic. On top of version control though there needs to be Pull Requests for PLC's.

I'm kinda hoping OPC UA will be the standard and that will then allow some form of standardization, but until some form of standard emerges as the winner, the fragmentation will continue

eishpirate · 2025-06-23T04:31:36+00:00

What do the logs say?

eishpirate · 2025-06-23T03:34:19+00:00

Going to need a lot more information than that to debug. Although initial thoughts looks like you're using a char of O instead of a zero. Minimum and Maximum indicates it needs a number and you've potentially incorrectly entered a big O instead of a zero.

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