OPC Client for ION Enterprise

OPC Client for ION Enterprise

Overview of OPC and ION OPC

OPC Client Concepts
OPC Client Demo: Setup Workflow

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Objectives

Understand the applications for the OPC Client in PowerLogic ION

Enterprise
Understand the concepts behind setting up the OPC Client feature
Learn tips and tricks to make the workflow easier:
Exploit the Modbus Device Importer and Excel to do most of the work

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What is it good for?

Process
Process
HMI Condition
Historian
Monitor

Power Building
PLC Monitoring Management
System System

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What is it good for?

Process
Process
HMI Condition
Historian
Monitor

Power Building
PLC Monitoring Management
System System

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What is it good for?

Process
Process
HMI Condition
Historian
Monitor

OPC

Disparate
or
Proprietary Power Building
PLC Monitoring Management
System System

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OPC Client use case

VIP Vista Web Reach Reporter

ION Enterprise
Data Acquisition

Large Industrials ION OPC Client

Lots of PLCs

Wonderware 3rd Party OPC Server

Cimplicity, OSI PI

Intellution iFix, Citect

Aspentech Commercial Properties Data Centers/IT Supply-Side

DeviceNet Lonworks SNMP DNP 3.0

Profibus BACNet IEC 60870-5-101/105

100s of Others Survalent

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OPC System What to Expect

Field
Field
Device
Field
Device 3rd Party OPC Server ION OPC Client
Devices

Multiple Tags are exposed

Data flow in one
Devices by the OPC Server
direction only: from
per server each tag represents
server to client (in
one source-
our implementation)
measurement pair

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Concepts: OPC Client device drivers

VIP Vista Web Reach Reporter

ION Enterprise
Data Acquisition

OPC driver
OPC Modbus driver
OPCdevice
devicedriver
driver OPC
OPCdevice
devicedriver
driver
Communications to OPC Servers using ION Enterprise OPC Client
requires an OPC device driver, just like Modbus devices
(e.g. those created using the MDI)

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Concepts: What is a device driver?

A device driver in ION Enterprise consists of TWO FILES:

Tree file:
Hierarchical tree structure of Manager-Module-of measurements using
internal ION Enterprise address scheme (ION handles)
Map file:
Maps OPC measurements to ION handles (hex address for registers)

3rd-party OPCTag
OPC Tag OPC Tag
OPC Tag
OPC Tag ION Handle ION Tree
device

3rd-party OPC Map file links Tree file puts the

Server does this the Tag to a Handles into a tree
part Handle stucture

device driver really means the

combination of both of these files

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Concepts: planning

Field Field
Field Field
Device
Field Device
Field
Device 3rd Party OPC Server ION OPC Client Device
Devices Devices

The goal is to setup the system so that there is one device in

Management Console per physical field device
Allows easier management of OPC drivers by creating one per device type
Allows easier management of Vista diagrams by creating template diagrams
Allows easier reporting on the data by keeping it simple for the user
Dont fall into the trap of creating one driver for the whole OPC Server
No ability to exploit template Vista diagrams and Generate Network
Diagram feature
Not repeatable at other sites
Brittle if OPC Server is modified

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How the MDI can help

Allows you to create the Tree

file visually and automatically
assign all the ION handles
Allows you to export the list of
ION Handles for each
measurement, which makes it
easier to create the Map File
Helps put the files in the correct
place and create the required
database entries

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What do I need to get started?

1. An understanding of the overall system, from the field devices through

to the software.

How many devices do I need to talk to?

What kinds of devices are they?

How do they communicate to ION Enterprise?
2. Basic OPC Server communications information

IP address or server name

OPC Server connect string (process ID or procID)
3. Tag list from the OPC Server

How is each field device represented by the OPC Server?

What are the specific tags that I need?

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 ION Enterprise includes a
standalone OPC test client to
browse an OPC Server:
opctestclient.exe

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OPC Test Client

Use the Test Client to read items from the OPC Server to:
Confirm communications
Determine OPC tags and syntax

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Creating the Device Driver using the
MDI tool

1. Open Modbus Device Importer and create a new device

2. Create the desired tree structure
3. Add the desired registers, using arbitrary Modbus information (this will
be deleted later)
4. Save the file, and Add Device Type
5. Update the DeviceType table in the ION_Network database to change
the TranslatorID to 21 (for OPC protocol)
6. Save ION Handles list and open using Excel (csv)
7. Copy and rename the sample Map (*.xml) file, and open in Notepad
8. Edit the Map file to map the OPC tags to the ION Handles

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1. Create a new Device Type

Find out from the customer

It is not always easy to determine what the Device Types are just by
browsing the OPC Server
Think about which parts of the OPC tag are repeated in each device
These are the ones you want to include in the OPC driver

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2. Create the desired tree structure

This structure is used in

Vista when linking objects

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3. Add the desired registers

The Register Label is the only important

field this is the quantity label that will
be used by the system
The MDI tool will automatically assign
an ION Handle to the Register Label
this all happens behind the scenes, it is
not important to the end-user
All other information is arbitrary Modbus
information, and will all be discarded
later

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4. Save the file, and Add Device Type

Saving results in the two required files being created:

Tree file: <devicename>.ion
Map file: <devicename>.xml
The tree file will be used for OPC Client, the map file is not needed
and will be deleted

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 5. Save ION Handle List and open in
Excel

This
This allows
allows you
you to
to view
view the
the ION
ION Handles
Handles that
that have
have been
been
assigned
assigned toto each
each Register
Register Label
Label
The
The ION
ION Handles
Handles are
are needed
needed toto create
create the
the Map
Map file
file in
in the
the
next
next step
step

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6. Edit the database to change the
TranslatorID to 21 (OPC protocol)

Use
Use SQL
SQL Management
Management StudioStudio
or
or other
other tool
tool to
to update
update the
the
DeviceType
DeviceType tabletable
(ION_Network.DeviceType)
(ION_Network.DeviceType)
Change
Change thethe value
value of
of the
the
TranslatorID
TranslatorID column
column toto 21
21

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7. Copy and rename the sample Map file
(*.xml), and open in Notepad

Overwrite the existing map file with the sample:

<install path>\config\translators\OPC\SampleClient.xml

Only this portion of the file needs to be edited

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8. Edit the Map file to map the OPC
tags to the ION Handles

1. Open the sample

OPC Map file
(.xml)
2. In the body of the
file (highlighted),
copy the ION
Handles from the
.csv and enter
them into the Map
file in the sample
format (one line
per tag)
3. From your OPC
Server
information, enter
the corresponding
OPC tag for each
ION Handle
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Troubleshooting and Tips

Make sure the .xml and .ion files are located in the ../config folder (not
the ../system folder)
The OPC tags are CASE SENSITIVE the tags must match exactly
what is shown on the OPC Server
Watch the use of the delimiter in the OPC tags some OPC Servers
use a . (period), others use a / (slash). The Map file must observe
the same convention as the OPC Server (not the convention shown in
the sample Map file)

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Concept: Map file vs Address field

Most OPC Servers have a tag

convention like:
Channel_X.Device_Y.label
The map file only needs to
include the .label part, the rest
is entered in Management
Console under the Address field
in the device options

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