From OPC server to compactlogix

[widelto]

Hi guys:

Recently I installed and external OPC server (Clarinet) from videojet, this is capturing info from several videojet printers.

I'm using derived tags within FT View SE to move data from Clarinet(OPC Server) to compactlogix and this works fine, I remember having heard that this is not the best way to transfer data.

Dou you know of a better way to transfer data from clarinet to compactlogix, please note that I'm not a VBA nor .Net expert.

Regards,

William

 

[widelto]

As I said, this connection from Clarinet OPC Server (installed in a different computer, win7)and FT View SE as a client is working properly. Data is transferred from Clarinet to Compactlogix plcs thru derived tags inside FT view SE, I'll leave it that way no more than 20 tags are transferred.

 

[widelto]

After searching for a while I found this:
https://www.kepware.com/products/linkmaster/
I'm going to download a demo, I'll let you know.

 

[harryting]

What you have now is fine.

The Linkmaster is a OPC client that sits between 2 OPC servers and it doesn't interface with logix PLC directly. Unless you get KepWare OPC server and setup a slave Ethernet connection like this.

<Clairnet OPC> -- <LinkMaster> -- <Kepware OPC - Kepware EthernetIP Slave> -- <Compactlogic>

I don't think that's any better than your current setup using FTTalk View.

 

[widelto]

Harry:

Thanks for the info.

I found this from kepware web page:

The most common scenario for LinkMaster is to link data between two (or more) OPC servers. As an example, a customer might be using RSLinx for connectivity to Allen-Bradley PLCs and Kepware's U-CON driver for connectivity to a checkweigher. In this example, the customer wants to easily send scale data to the PLC.

 

[Archie]

I know you said you are not a VB or .NET programmer, but what if I give you a method that only requires a single line of code that looks like this:

EthernetIPforCLXCom1.Write("MyTag",e.values(0))

AdvancedHMI has 3 components that make this possible. An OPC Client/Driver, ControlLogix driver, and a DataSubscriber. The DataSubscriber listens for data from the OPC Server, then the one line of code transfers the data to the CompactLogix.

I wouldn't say this is any better than your FT solution, but probably faster (and cheaper since its free).

If you're interested, let me know and I can give you a step by step on how to do it all. Since it only takes about 2 minutes to completely setup, I would even create the app for you and post it to the sample application section of AdvancedHMI for you to download.

 

[widelto]

Archie:

I know it's somewhat late, but definitively I do want to try your offer.
Please let me know.

William

 

[Archie]

Archie:

I know it's somewhat late, but definitively I do want to try your offer.
Please let me know.

William

I may have an even easier way to do this without the need to write any code:

- Download and extract the latest version of AdvancedHMI
- Download and install Visual Studio Community Edition

- Using Visual Studio open the AdvancedHMI solution file
- Build->Build Solution
- In Solution Explorer, double click MainForm.vb to open the designer
- From the Toolbox, add an OpcDaCom driver to the form

This is now usually the hardest part because OPC drivers can be a real pain to establish a connection with

- In the Properties Window, set OPCServer to the exact name of your server. If you are unsure, you can use an OPC Browser to find it
- If your server uses Topics, then set the OPCTopic property

At this point, to validate your OPC connection, I recommend adding a BasicLabel to the form and setting PLCAddressValue to a known address in the OPC server. Then run the application and see if the BasicLabel shows the value.

If the OPC connection is verified to be working, you can now setup for the PLC communications:

- From the Toolbox, add an EthernetIPforCLXCom driver to the form
- Set the IPAddress property to that of the PLC

Now to read the value from the OPC and transfer it to the PLC:

- From the Toolbox, add a ComBridge to the form
- Set the ComComponent property to OpcDaCom1
- Set the ComComonentTarget to EthernetIPforCLXCom1
- Set PLCAddressValue to the tag address from the OPC server
- Set PLCAddressValueTarget to the tag in the ControLogix where you want the value written to

Now when you run the application, the ComBridge will read the value from the OPC Server and write it to the ControlLogix