The Audio Connector is one component of an ecosystem of Edge apps that enable acoustic data collection and analytics on Siemens Industrial Edge.
As seen in this diagram, configuration and operation of the Audio Connector is dependent on several other components, all of which are part of the Industrial Information Hub (IIH) on Siemens Industrial Edge.
To install the Audio Connector, first you must purchase a license through the IE Marketplace or the Industry Mall. Then, copy the app from your IE Hub into your IE Management Catalog. You may now install the app as normal onto your Edge device. Configuration of the app at this stage is optional; if no configuration is provided, the Audio Connector will automatically generate a valid configuration for all detected audio devices.
Once installed, hardware access to any connected audio devices is implemented through the Linux-native /dev/snd volume:
On the same Edge device, also install the IIH Common Configurator, the IIH Registry Service, and the IIH Databus Gateway. This completes the installation of the Audio Connector; you are now ready to configure the app.
Configuration of the Audio Connector is handled through the IIH Common Configurator.
- First, open the UI of the IIH Common Configurator:
- Next, select the Audio Connector:
- If your audio device is not already shown, add it as a new datasource from the
Tagstab:
Note: all audio devices discovered by the Audio Connector will be listed in the dev_log.json file,
which can be downloaded from the app management page of the IED.
The dev_log.json list is updated upon restart of the Audio Connector.
- Now, add tags to that connection:
Note: device channels start at 0.
- Select the tags you which to configure for each audio device, and deploy:
Now, to forward the configured data tags from the Audio Connector onto the IE Databus, we use the IIH Databus Gateway. This can be performed either from the IIH Common Configurator via the "Publish to Databus" checkboxes, or via direct configuration of the IIH Databus Gateway from your IEM.
An example IIH Databus Gateway configuration is shown below:
{
"configs":[
{
"$schema":"https://siemens.com/connectivity_suite/schemas/mqtt-gw/1.0.0/config.json",
"config":{
"parameters":{
"mqtt_server_name":"ie-databus",
"mqtt_client_id":"cs-mqtt-gateway",
"user_name":"edge",
"password":"edge",
"pub_topic_metadata":"ie/m/j/simatic/v1/cs-mqtt-gtw/dp/r",
"pub_topic_status":"ie/s/j/simatic/v1/cs-mqtt-gtw/status"
},
"data_sources":[
{
"name":"Umik-1",
"driver_instance":"csaudioconn",
"connection_name":"Umik-1 Gain: 18dB: USB Audio (hw:3,0) at index 4",
"parameters":{
"request_cycle":85,
"pub_topic_timeseries": "ie/d/j/simatic/v1/csaudioconn/dp/r/audio-device-1",
"subscr_topic_write_req":"ie/d/j/simatic/v1/csaudioconn/dp/w/audio-device-1",
"pub_topic_write_rsp": "ie/d/j/simatic/v1/csaudioconn/dp/w/audio-device-1/response",
"pub_topic_read_rsp": "ie/d/j/simatic/v1/csaudioconn/dp/r/audio-device-1/response",
"subscr_topic_read_req": "ie/d/j/simatic/v1/csaudioconn/dp/r/audio-device-1/request"
},
"datapoints":[
{ "name":"ch0", "parameters": {"data_type":"Int"}}
]
},
{
"name":"Scarlett",
"driver_instance":"csaudioconn",
"connection_name":"Scarlett 18i20 USB: Audio (hw:1,0) at index 2",
"parameters":{
"request_cycle":85,
"pub_topic_timeseries": "ie/d/j/simatic/v1/csaudioconn/dp/r/audio-device-2",
"subscr_topic_write_req":"ie/d/j/simatic/v1/csaudioconn/dp/w/audio-device-2",
"pub_topic_write_rsp": "ie/d/j/simatic/v1/csaudioconn/dp/w/audio-device-2/response",
"pub_topic_read_rsp": "ie/d/j/simatic/v1/csaudioconn/dp/r/audio-device-2/response",
"subscr_topic_read_req": "ie/d/j/simatic/v1/csaudioconn/dp/r/audio-device-2/request"
},
"datapoints":[
{ "name":"ch0", "parameters": {"data_type":"Int"}},
{ "name":"ch1", "parameters": {"data_type":"Int"}}
]
}
]
}
}
]
}Note that the connection_name fields must match those in the audio-conn-config.json of the Audio Connector, e.g.:
{
"configs": [
{
"$schema": "https://siemens.com/connectivity_suite/schemas/audio-connector/1.0.0/config.json",
"config": {
"connections": [
{
"parameters": {
"device_name": "Scarlett 18i20 USB: Audio (hw:1,0)",
"sampling_rate": 44100,
"frame_size": 4096,
"stream_format": "Int16"
},
"name": "Scarlett 18i20 USB: Audio (hw:1,0) at index 2",
"datapoints": [
{
"parameters": {},
"address": {
"channel": 0
},
"name": "ch0",
"access_mode": "r",
"array_dimensions": [
0
],
"data_type": "Int"
},
{
"parameters": {},
"address": {
"channel": 1
},
"name": "ch1",
"access_mode": "r",
"array_dimensions": [
0
],
"data_type": "Int"
}
]
},
{
"parameters": {
"device_name": "Umik-1 Gain: 18dB: USB Audio (hw:3,0)",
"sampling_rate": 48000,
"frame_size": 4096,
"stream_format": "Int16"
},
"name": "Umik-1 Gain: 18dB: USB Audio (hw:3,0) at index 4",
"datapoints": [
{
"parameters": {},
"address": {
"channel": 0
},
"name": "ch0",
"access_mode": "r",
"array_dimensions": [
0
],
"data_type": "Int"
},
{
"parameters": {},
"address": {
"channel": 1
},
"name": "ch1",
"access_mode": "r",
"array_dimensions": [
0
],
"data_type": "Int"
}
]
}
]
}
}
]
}To verify that the Audio Connector is functioning properly, we can use IE Flow Creator to monitor the traffic on the IE Databus:
Similarly, we can browse the connection metadata on the IE Databus:
To visualize the audio datastream as a real-time waveform, you can use the Edge Oscilloscope app.
Two example applications which consume the audio data generated by the Audio Connector on the IE Databus (via the IIH Databus Gateway) are the Edge Oscilloscope and the Audio Processor.
The Edge Oscilloscope is an example application provided for free on Siemens Industry Online Support (SIOS). Additional instructions can be found here.
The Audio Processor is an example application provided as open source in this repository. Additional instructions can be found here.