Custom Connectors

Connectware supports a wide range of communication protocols out of the box. However, if you need to connect to a device or sensor that is not yet supported by the Protocol Mapper, you can develop a custom connector.

Custom connectors allow you to add custom connection and endpoint resources to integrate self-developed or less common protocols. You can develop custom connectors, deploy and test them to finally integrate them.

Architecture of Custom Connectors

Custom connectors are based on the base image of the Protocol Mapper. You can deploy and start custom connectors as agents.

• Base image of the Protocol Mapper

  The Protocol Mapper base image is a Docker image of the Protocol Mapper without pre-built communication protocols, but with the ability to communicate with Connectware via MQTT. This image allows you to implement your specific communication protocol methods and send data to Connectware.

• Agents

  Agents are additional components of Connectware that you can deploy and start individually, usually somewhere outside of your central Connectware installation. For example, on an edge device near a machine or on the shop floor.

You can use agents to communicate with machines that are not on the centralized Connectware network, to distribute the data load across multiple edge devices, or to implement custom connectors. Agents must be on a network that allows them to connect to both the Connectware instance and the machine or sensor that you want to read.

Example of the Connectware Architecture

Below is a typical Connectware architecture that uses agents to reach sub networks or production lines that the main Connectware instance cannot reach.