What’s New In OPC Data.NET 5.1x?

Renee SikesApplications Engineer

Introducing OPC A&E Custom Client Development

Agenda – 45 Minutes• OPC to Visual Studio.NET Overview• OPCData.NET Overview• What’s new in version 5.11• Live training– Set up TOP Server A&E Plug-in– Connecting to A&E server– Browsing for data in A&E server– Subscribing to A&E server

• Discussion, Questions & Answers

Using Visual Studio as an OPC Client

• When you configure an HMI, you configure an OPC client connection to the OPC Server.

• In VS.NET you need an OPC client plug-in tool

• Good Design and Planning Still Required– Systems are only as good as

weakest linkVisual Basic to 1 OPC Server to 1-N Devices

Putting it to Work

Server Application

Client ToolPlug-In

OPC Client Plug-In Tools

• Two Types – Free & Commercial• Free Wrapper Objects– Available from OPC Foundation– Requires understanding of key OPC interfaces and working

with handles & collections– Community support only – no phone or email support

• Commercial Software Tools– Variety of types & languages available– Details of OPC implementation abstracted for user– User focuses on “read this”, “write that”– Phone, email support usually included– OPC Certified solutions are available

OPCData.NET

• 100% managed, native 32 and 64 bit .NET component• Visual Studio 2005, 2008, 2010• Easy to use API• Abstracts much of the OPC work under the hood

– Supports OPC DA and A&E

• Includes UA COM wrapper• Multi-threaded, non-blocking design for high performance• Self-optimizing• OPC Self-Certified• OPCData-COM available for ActiveX users

Your application with

OPCData.NET

Typical Usage

• Can be used from within any tool based on the Microsoft .NET Framework

• Thick-client .NET applications– Windows Forms

• Thin-client web applications– Building your own web

service or Windows Services

Your OPC-DA or A&E

Server

Your OPC-DA or A&E

Server

OPCData.NET API

• Two main assemblies– EasyOpcClassicNet.dll• Classes that hold common OPC information• Classes that work with OPC Data Access and OPC

Alarms and Events

– EasyOpcNetForms.dll• Classes that work with OPC-DA from Windows Forms

applications (browsing dialogs)

• SwtbExtenderReplacement.dll– Targeted for current users of SWTB Extender.NET

OPCData.NET API

• EasyDAClient is the main object that allows access to OPC DA servers

• EasyAEClient is the main object that allows access to OPC A&E servers

• Browsing via dialog or code• Allows simultaneous operations

– multiple threads for improved efficiency• Error handling

– OPC-related errors, COM/DCOM errors, errors returned from OPC server, errors detected by OPCData.NET library

• Helper properties for increased control– Synchronous and asynchronous operations, timeout and hold

periods, percent deadband

What is OPC A&E?

• A set of standardized interfaces used to pass alarm and event information– “alarm” and “event” used interchangeably

• Designed to compliment existing OPC DA interfaces

Parts of an A&E Server

• Area- a logical grouping of plant equipment for which events and conditions are available• An organizational “folder”

• Condition- a names state of the event server which of interest to the client– Single state– Multi-state: has mutually exclusive sub-conditions– Has a set of attributes that can be accessed to give

more information to the client about the condition• Active, ActiveSubCondition, Enabled, Acked, LastAckTime,

etc– Has a quality associated with it

Parts of an A&E Server

• Subcondition- part of a range of values which define a condition (ex. HighHighAlarm or LevelAlarm)– Has attributes associated with it including: name,

definition, severity, description• Severity is spread over a range of 1 -1000, typically in an even and

logical distribution

OPC Range OPC Severity

Hi- Hi 751-1000

Hi 501-750

Lo 251-500

Lo-Lo 1-250

Parts of an A&E server

• Event- detectable occurrence in the event server – Condition-related: associated with conditions– Tracking-related: interaction of OPC client with an

object in event server– Simple: any other than above

• Event Categories- groupings of events support by an event server.– Includes events of one type of category (ex. Deviation

alarms, level alarms, runtime error events, etc)

Live Demo

• Set up the TOP Server A&E Plug-in• VB.NET Client using Data.NET 5.11– Connecting to A&E server– Browsing for data in A&E server– Subscribing to events in A&E server

What Tools are Needed?

• For all usage scenarios– No tag count limits– No limits on # of clients, # of servers

• OPCData.NET Single PC Usage License (p/n 41283501) $595• OPCData.NET Single Developer + Runtime Free License (p/n

41283502) $995• Multiple developer discounts available• OPC Data Client (p/n 41283508) $1495

– OPCData.NET– OPCData-COM

• Support contracts also available (20% of List Price)• Contact us for upgrade pricing from OPCWebClient 3.02

Contact Information & Other Learning Opportunities

• Free Demo: http://opcwebclient.com/html/free_demo.asp

• Questions later?– Renee Sikes

• rsikes@softwaretoolbox.com• 888-665-3678 x 1328 or 704-849-2773 x 1328

– www.opcwebclient.com

• Other learning opportunities– Recording of this webinar– Visit www.softwaretoolbox.com/webinars