OPC Protocols

The OPC Foundation has defined various standards for connecting to machines. Please read this article for a full background of OPC (Classic OPC and OPC UA) and some configuration recommendations. As explained in the article as well, there are three ways to connect machines that use OPC DA via TCP:

1. OPC DA: Using an OPC DA gateway such as OpenOPC.

2. OPC DA DCOM: Using DCOM to communicate with the Windows OPC DA server (not recommended)

3. OPC DA XML: Using a web based service in order to connect

OPC UA, on the other hand, is a TCP based protocol. Below are a list of the various OPC protocols that Ardexa connects to, and for each, the setup parameters that are necessary in order for the connection to be successful. For all protocols, the following two parameters need to be sent to the person implementing the connections:

1. Machine brand and model: This allows us to understand the type of machine being monitored or controlled. 2. Preferred name for machine: This allows us to name the data source correctly.

OPC DA

OPC DA connection via TCP is possible via an OPC DA gateway such as OpenOPC. Please consult the article mentioned previously in this page for more details, and please provide the following:

1. Program ID: the OPC DA machine namespace.

OPC DA DCOM (remotely accessing a Windows machine

1. Program ID: the OPC DA machine namespace. 2. IP Address: Provide the static IP address of the machine.

3. Credentials: These are the Windows username and password.

OPC DA XML

OPC DA XML is a web based service which uses a system called SOAP (service orientated architecture protocol). If this protocol is used, please provide the following parameters:

1. IP Address: Provide the static IP address of the machine. 2. Credentials: If necessary, please provide the username and password necessary to access the machine's web server.

OPC UA

1. IP Address: Provide the static IP address of the machine.

2. Port: Default value is usually 4840. If different, please send to the person implementing the connections. 3. For each variable that is to be collected from, please provide ALL the following, preferably in a CSV file:

1. OPC UA variable name (the variable name/location as provided by OPC UA)

2. Name of the variable (what the variable should be displayed as in Ardexa)

3. Type of the variable (e.g.: bool, decimal, etc.)

4. Units of the variable (e.g: Volts)

5. Scale of the variable (e.g: must be divided by 100 to get Volts)