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Александр Ларионов
Александр Ларионов

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How to Set Up a Free SCADA System in 5 Minutes (No Installation Required)

#tutorial #automation #iot #opensource

The Problem

Setting up a SCADA system for a small water treatment plant or solar farm usually means:

  1. Spending $10K-$50K on software licenses
  2. Dedicating a Windows server
  3. Hiring a specialist for weeks of configuration
  4. Ongoing maintenance fees

What if you could just open a file in your browser?

Step 1: Download awtSCADA 

# Download the demo (20 MB)
wget https://github.com/larionovavi-stack/awtscada/releases/download/v1.0-en/awtSCADA_Demo_EN.zip

# Extract
unzip awtSCADA_Demo_EN.zip
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You now have:

  • SCADA_IEC61850_v8.html - the SCADA application
  • SCADA_Gateway - binaries for Win/Mac/Linux
  • Demo_Project.json - sample project

Step 2: Start the Gateway

The gateway connects your browser to real industrial equipment.

# On macOS/Linux
chmod +x SCADA_Gateway_macOS
./SCADA_Gateway_macOS

# On Windows
SCADA_Gateway.exe
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Gateway starts on port 8080 with a web dashboard showing all protocol connections.

Step 3: Open the SCADA

Just open SCADA_IEC61850_v8.html in Chrome, Firefox, or Edge. That's it.

The demo project loads automatically with a built-in equipment emulator so you can see everything working without real hardware.

Step 4: Connect Real Equipment

Modbus TCP (Most PLCs and sensors)

In the Gateway config, add your device:

modbus:
  - name: "Power Meter"
    host: 192.168.1.100
    port: 502
    unit_id: 1
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OPC UA (Siemens S7-1500, Beckhoff, etc.) 

opcua:
  - name: "S7-1500"
    url: "opc.tcp://192.168.1.50:4840"
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MQTT (IoT sensors) 

mqtt:
  broker: "192.168.1.1"
  port: 1883
  topics:
    - "sensors/#"
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Step 5: Build Your HMI

The built-in editor has 65 drag-and-drop elements:

  • Pumps, valves, motors with animation
  • Tanks with level indication
  • Gauges, indicators, trend charts
  • Pipes with flow direction

Plus 53 function blocks for logic:

  • PID controllers
  • Timers and counters
  • Math and comparison
  • Interlocks and alarms

Real-World Use Cases

Small Water Treatment Plant (~200 tags):

  • 3 pumps, 2 chemical dosing, 5 level sensors
  • Modbus TCP connection
  • Alarm management + operator log
  • Total setup time: 2 hours

Solar Farm Monitoring (~500 tags):

  • 10 inverters via Modbus
  • Weather station via MQTT
  • Energy production trends
  • Total setup time: 4 hours

Digital Substation (~1000 tags):

  • Protection relays via IEC 61850
  • Circuit breaker control via GOOSE
  • Measurement via Sampled Values
  • Total setup time: 1 day

Links

Questions? Drop a comment below or open a Discussion on GitHub.

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