Ignition SCADA First Project: Install, Tags and Your First Screen (Video)

This Ignition SCADA tutorial takes you from a fresh install to a working first screen: install the gateway, run it in free trial mode, create tags from a built-in simulator, and bind them to a Perspective view in your browser. Watch the video first, then follow the written steps below and check your work against them.

In this lesson by Inductive Automation, the company that makes Ignition introduces getting started with the platform. It opens the first module of the free Ignition SCADA course, which covers what Ignition is, its architectures and editions, and Maker Edition. Follow along, then check your work against these steps.

Before you start: trial mode or Maker Edition?

Both are free, and either works for this tutorial.

• Trial mode. Inductive Automation's download page says you can install the full version and try it for as long as you want. The only catch is that the gateway times out every two hours and you restart the trial, as many times as you like. The Designer and the gateway webpage keep working while the timer is out.
• Maker Edition. Free for personal and educational use, up to 10,000 tags, with Perspective as the only visualisation module. It is not for business use.

For a first project, trial mode is simplest: nothing to register. Move to Maker Edition later if you want a home project that runs all day.

Step 1: Install and commission the gateway

1. Download the installer for your operating system from Inductive Automation's downloads page and run it with the default modules.
2. When the installer finishes, the gateway webpage opens in your browser to commission the new gateway.
3. If the commissioning page asks for an edition, choose Standard for this tutorial.
4. Create the gateway administrator username and password. Write them down; you will need them for the Designer.
5. Keep the default ports unless something on your PC already uses them, and start the gateway.

The gateway is the server. Everything else (the Designer, Perspective sessions, device connections) connects to it.

Step 2: Start the trial and open the Designer

On the gateway webpage, start the trial if it asks. Then download the Designer Launcher from the gateway home page, install it, add your gateway, and log in with the administrator account. Create a new project and give it a short name with no spaces, such as FirstProject.

Step 3: Add a simulator device

You do not need a PLC. Ignition includes simulator device types for exactly this.

1. On the gateway webpage, go to the device connections section of the configuration pages.
2. Create a new device and choose one of the simulator types (for example the Programmable Device Simulator).
3. Name it Sim1 and save.
4. Check that its status shows as connected.

Step 4: Create tags

Back in the Designer, open the Tag Browser.

1. Open the OPC browser, expand the Ignition OPC UA server and your Sim1 device.
2. Drag two changing values (a ramp and a sine, for example) into the Tags folder. These are OPC tags: Ignition reads them from the device.
3. Rename them Level and Flow so the screen makes sense to an operator.
4. Create a new memory tag of type Boolean called PumpRun. A memory tag lives only in Ignition, which makes it ideal for a button.

Watch the values in the Tag Browser. They should change, with good quality. If the quality is bad, the device connection is the problem, not the tag.

Step 5: Build your first Perspective view

1. In the Project Browser, under Perspective, create a new view called Overview and set it as the page for the root URL.
2. From the component palette, drag a tank component onto the view, plus two labels and a toggle or button.
3. Select the tank. Find its value property, click the binding icon, choose a tag binding and pick the Level tag.
4. Bind one label's text to Flow. Add units in a second label next to it.
5. Bind the toggle's selected property to PumpRun, and make the binding bidirectional so pressing it writes the tag.
6. Save the project.

Step 6: Launch and test

From the Designer's Tools menu, launch a Perspective session. Your browser opens the view: the tank should move with Level, the label should follow Flow, and pressing the toggle should change PumpRun in the Tag Browser.

Common mistakes

• Nothing moves on screen. The binding is on the wrong property, or you did not save the project before launching the session.
• The toggle does nothing. The binding is not bidirectional, so the screen reads PumpRun but never writes it.
• Everything stops after two hours. That is trial mode. Reset the trial from the gateway webpage and carry on.

Where to go next

For depth, go to Inductive University, which is free and awards a free Ignition credential when you pass its credential courses. For a structured project, the free Ignition SCADA course continues with gateway setup and backups, tag scaling, quality and event scripts, OPC UA and Modbus devices, a batching station with valve animation and alarms, SQL history, reports, MQTT, Perspective and deployment on edge, cloud and containers. If the SQL part is new to you, the free SQL for PLC and SCADA engineers course fills the gap.

The free course and the certificate

The Ignition course is free in full: lessons by Inductive Automation and independent creators, credited on the course page, with written notes, a practice task per module and one final assessment of 15 questions (60% pass mark, three attempts, then a 24-hour wait and a fresh paper). You need a free account so your progress is saved.

The optional EDWartens Certificate of Completion is the only paid item. The Ignition course is beginner level, so it is a small one-off fee, from US$2.99, with a code anyone can check at edwartens.com/verification. It is not an Inductive Automation credential or certification. Create a free account to start.

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