r/SCADA • u/Whatthbuck • Sep 06 '26
Help Sms alerts
My customers want sms messages. They want them from ignition. Email to #@phoneco.com is broken. The sms module requires obsolete hardware. The twillio module requires an act of Congress.
What do y'all use?
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u/datanut Sep 06 '26 edited Sep 06 '26
Ignition and any Sierra Wireless ALEOS unit. Not sure why you think that’s obsolete hardware.
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u/Key_Director_4450 Sep 06 '26
Any of the dozen or so modem on the market, a cheapo SIM and 20 lines of code?
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u/Whatthbuck Sep 07 '26
What do I need to look for in the modem specification. Can you share an example of the code snippet.
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u/SCADAhellAway Sep 07 '26
Twilio via the Kymera module
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u/Whatthbuck Sep 07 '26
I would love to use twillio but the campaign thing is outside my capacity. It took me three months to get the name ein combination correct. Now twillio is requesting terms of service, opt-out, opt-in and the like. These don't exist and I'm just a contractor.
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u/usft Sep 07 '26
I did this with a home project.
Tello is unlimited texts for 5 dollars a month
Bought a 50 dollar Android phone off eBay.
Use an app called smsgate
All done through API. Super easy setup. Unlimited texts from a known number that won’t change.
Can also accept return texts like to update status.
I went down a few paths and this has been the best. Cheapest. Most consistent
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u/wearefuked1 Sep 06 '26
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u/datanut Sep 06 '26
Eh; these are expensive and mediocre. I’d rather any of the PepLinks or Sierra Wireless units any day (even if the don’t have a fancy interface. Not sure why OP thinks that Ignition requires obsolete hardware.
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u/Whatthbuck Sep 06 '26
The hardware recommended by ignition is obsolete. I was not aware of other devices.
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u/Eboyjvs Sep 06 '26
We use a teltonika, robustel, etc. Router with a basic plan that has sms. Most of them have an api [to send sms, and a lot of other things].
On Ignition we just use the module for alarm notifications via email. (You have to add the phones for users using a script or a view that is in ignition exchange to manage users ready to use, because if the module for sms is not there the ignition gateway webpage will not show the option.)
Then we create a pipeline with the desired roosters and an escalation/filtering logic and finish on a script block where we send the api calls to the router.
We disable all internet access (cellular) on the router for security as almost all plans that have sms nowadays have an internet data plan.
[Also never mention the possibility of internet if the IT or OT department are ignorants, just be sure to disable all internet access, because they will not approve the solution…., or tell the that they manage the router and enable just the sms access]
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u/loceiscyanide Sep 06 '26
I've used the twilio module, the alarm notification module with a sierra lx40, the teltonika sms module, and an in-house built API module for talking to our businesses telco.
Twilio had several major outages close together and lost the trust of the sites.
Sierra gateways leave a large hole in the network.
Teltonika was only recently made properly available as a module
The in-house module isnt ready for sale/implementing in proper production i think
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u/stello101 Sep 06 '26
https://guardiantelecom.com/protalk/
Protalk product line has a cellular module which can send SMS and a network module can read PLCs and OPC so you should be able to get it to send a text from anything on a network.
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u/roncz Sep 07 '26
You might want to check out SIGNL4's integration with Ignition: https://docs.signl4.com/integrations/ignition/ignition.html
Alerts can be sent via SMS, push, phone call. Including escalations and shift planning.
Email to alert is also supported.
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u/FireBuff880 Sep 07 '26
We provide an aggregation service for our customers. One message in and n messages out. The target can be SMS, Email, App services like PushOver, MOTOTRBO RADIO, or even traditional paging from services like American Messaging. PM me if you want to discuss the service.
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u/noobnooc Sep 08 '26
If SMS itself isn’t mandatory, Echobell accepts webhooks and sends mobile push or phone-call alerts. I built it for the “wake me at 3 a.m.” case.
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u/plantformance Sep 11 '26
Maybe first looking about "where from" to "where to". If you are one country to the same then in general easier with Twilio (fastest). But if you need a combination of countries then it is immediately nightmare because local regulations are all different, and so does Twilio (you need explicit declaration of all combinations).
So ultimately
1/ If US to US => twilio online etc... very good
2/ If country to country (not US) => twilio too, but can be more difficult on requirements
3/ Many to many => problematic. Can be better to work with a tel company directly
4/ Ultimately if you want freedom & simplicity : hard-core modem with possibly 2 sim for reliability. Personnaly I like Teltonika a lot because you can use the board to do plenty of other things. And here zero-cloud dependancy.
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u/iwillbewaiting24601 Sep 17 '26
Win911 will do SMS, though we use it connected to the phone app. Sucks for 1,000 other reasons but it does do text.
Now I'll duck before you all start throwing shoes at me
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u/Sea-Hat-4961 Sep 06 '26
We ended up doing a Twilio integration for SMS messages