Connection Management

A connection is the communication channel to a field device or system. Each connection uses one protocol and is bound to a project.

Connection Fields

Field	Type	Required	Description
name	String	Yes	Connection name (unique within the project)
protocol	Protocol enum	Yes	Communication protocol
ip	String	Protocol-dependent	Target IP address
port	Integer	Protocol-dependent	Target port number
dsc	String (≤255)	No	Description
projectId	String	Yes	Owning project ID

Protocol-specific fields (unit id, timeout, polling period, …) are covered in each protocol’s configuration page.

Supported Protocols

Protocol value	Use Case	Typical Device
Modbus TCP / Modbus TCP Slave	Industrial automation	PLC, energy analyzer, drive
Modbus UDP / Modbus UDP Slave	Low-latency polling	Energy meter
Modbus RTU Over TCP / Modbus RTU Over TCP Slave	Serial ↔ TCP gateway	RTU, serial device
DNP3 / DNP3 Slave	Power distribution	RTU, protection relay
IEC 60870-5-104 / IEC 60870-5-104 Server	Transmission / distribution	RTU, SCADA gateway
IEC 61850 / IEC 61850 Server	Substation automation	IED, protection relay
OPC UA / OPC UA Server	Open standard	PLC, DCS, SCADA
OPC DA	Windows COM/DCOM	Legacy OPC servers
OPC XML	HTTP / SOAP	OPC over web services
S7	Siemens PLC	S7-300, S7-400, S7-1200, S7-1500
MQTT	IoT / message broker	Gateway, sensor, broker
EthernetIp	Rockwell / Allen-Bradley	Logix 5000+ family
Fatek TCP / Fatek UDP	Fatek PLC	FBs, FBe series
LOCAL	Simulation / internal compute	Internal variable

The Slave / Server variants let inSCADA expose itself as a listening endpoint on the given protocol (serving data to remote masters/clients).

Per-protocol details: Protocols →

Sidecar protocols

BACnet and KNX are not bundled into the inSCADA platform — they run as separate Node.js gateway services and integrate over REST/WebSocket. They do not appear as a Protocol value on a Connection.

Connection Status

ConnectionStatus enum:

Status	Meaning
Connected	Connection is up, data is being read
Disconnected	Connection is down — either stopped, or the peer is unreachable

Note

inSCADA only exposes two values for connection status. A timeout, auth failure, or similar problem puts the connection into Disconnected; the failure details are visible in the platform log / event log. There is no separate Error status.

Connection Shape (example)

{
  "id": "abc123",
  "name": "LOCAL-Energy",
  "protocol": "LOCAL",
  "ip": "127.0.0.1",
  "port": 0,
  "projectId": "proj-153",
  "dsc": "Local protocol connection for energy simulation"
}

Starting / Stopping Connections

Connections can be managed from the UI or from scripts. The server-side ins.* API:

// Query status
var status = ins.getConnectionStatus("LOCAL-Energy");
// → "Connected" or "Disconnected"

// Cycle the connection in the next tick
ins.stopConnection("MODBUS-PLC");
ins.startConnection("MODBUS-PLC");

// Target a connection in another project
ins.stopConnection("GES-02", "MODBUS-PLC");
ins.startConnection("GES-02", "MODBUS-PLC");

Note

The GraalJS sandbox disallows java.lang.Thread.sleep() and similar thread primitives. stopConnection and startConnection are synchronous — no sleep between them is required.

Updating Connection Parameters

ins.updateConnection takes a full ConnectionResponseDto. The typical pattern is read-modify-write:

var conn = ins.getConnection("MODBUS-PLC");
conn.setIp("192.168.1.100");
conn.setPort(502);

ins.updateConnection("MODBUS-PLC", conn);

The same applies to updateDevice and updateFrame:

var device = ins.getDevice("MODBUS-PLC", "slave-1");
device.setUnitId(3);
ins.updateDevice("MODBUS-PLC", "slave-1", device);

var frame = ins.getFrame("MODBUS-PLC", "slave-1", "main-block");
frame.setPeriod(2000);
ins.updateFrame("MODBUS-PLC", "slave-1", "main-block", frame);

Tip

If the update changes a network endpoint, follow the stopConnection → update → startConnection order. For purely internal settings (e.g. polling period), no restart is needed.

Details: Connection API → | REST API Reference → (see Connection Management, Protocol Connection, Protocol Variable, Protocol Template controller groups)