Moving the Open-Source Broadly Reconfigurable and Expandable Automation Device (BREAD) Towards a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) System

While the free and open-source Broadly Reconfigurable and Expandable Automation Device (BREAD) has demonstrated functionality as an inexpensive replacement for many commercial controllers, some aspects of its design require updating to make it more aligned with commercial supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems. Some of these updates to BREAD for version 2 included improvements to the mechanical design for stability with an alignment cover, rail mounting with Deutsche Institut für Normung (DIN) rail clips, ESP32 Loaf Controller with local wireless connectivity, and open-source web browser-based software control. These updates were validated by comparing BREAD v2 to an existing commercial controller used for airline-based pH control for industrial seaweed production. BREAD v2 was integrated into an electrical enclosure complete with pH probes, CO2 lines, solenoid valves, and a power supply. After comparing the two approaches, BREAD v2 was found to be more precise by roughly a factor of five, and less expensive by a factor of three than proprietary systems, while also offering additional functionality like data logging and wireless monitoring. Although able to match or beat specific functions of SCADA systems, future work is needed to transform BREAD into a full SCADA system.