Configure like in RsLinx

General Discussion
1

Hi everyone,

I’m not familliar with OPC Servers. Could someone tell me is here possible to configure Ignition OPC Server like Rockwell Software RsLinx OPC Server (see screenshots)?

If yes could someone guide me how to do that?

Regards,
Mateusz Blaszka
IT Department
Firma ADAM’S

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2

You’ll want to browse to your gateway and select “Devices” under the “OPC-UA” menu. Click “Add a device”.

Select the device type from the list.

Fill in the device name and hostname, and click save.

3

Many thanks.

I guess that RsLinx ‘pulled messages’ is this same like ‘Read Timeout’ in Ignition.
Am I right?

Next problem is how to force HMI software to communicate with Ignition OPC Server if it’s writed to communicate only with RsLinx.

Something like proxy? HMI software will think that it is communicate with Rslinx but really it will communicate with Ignition.
Any ideas?

Is it possible in any way?

Best Regards
Mateusz Blaszka
IT Administrator
Firma ADAM’S

4

I don’t think you’ll be able to.

The OPC server supplied by RSLinx is OPC-DA, while Ignition is OPC-UA.

What are you trying to do, if I may ask? The more details you can provide, the better answer you will likely get. :smiley:

5

Are you familiar with the difference between OPC-DA and OPC-UA? You can use Ignition’s OPC-UA server, just make sure you turn on anonymous access. If you need something that can act as both an OPC-UA and OPC-DA server, I recommend looking at Kepware’s offerings and pointing Ignition’s OPC-UA configuration at Kepware.

6

[quote=“JordanCClark”]I don’t think you’ll be able to.

The OPC server supplied by RSLinx is OPC-DA, while Ignition is OPC-UA.

What are you trying to do, if I may ask? The more details you can provide, the better answer you will likely get. :smiley:[/quote]

OK. We have machine Emba 245 QS (http://www.emba.com/products/245.htm). This manufacturer is selling their machines with his own HMI software and RsLinx. Buyer can’t choose any other OPC Server. Probably (I’m trying to test that now) HMI software will not be able to connect with machine by any other OPC Server than RsLinx.

Now where is the problem.
Manufacturer is still selling machine and software with Windows NT and not PnP serial card. I figured out how to make it working on Windows 7 and XP but is much slower than on NT. I’m not sure what causes this delay. It can be old OPC Server or serial card.

I’d like to try test this software with other OPC Server. But how to do that if HMI software is writed to work only with RsLinx? Something middle software that will be pretend RsLinx, sending signals to Inductive and Inductive to machine? Something like proxy in network?

I hope that everything is clear :>

Could someone send me some link with descriptions about difference between OPC-DA and OPC-UA Servers?

7

Ok, makes perfect sense! :thumb_left:

Here’s a link to the OPC Foundation’s site and info on OPC-UA

I’m going to stick with my original thought that the HMI software will not be able to use the Ignition OPC server because of the OPC-DA/UA differences.

I would go with Mr. Buehler’s recommendation of Kepware products. Free to download and run for two hours at a time.

Another option would be port the whole application over to Ignition. A lot of work up front, I’d bet, but may be worth it in the end to keep up with current technologies.

8

How it's behave? When some software is still have opened connection with Kepware and during this connection will pass 2 hours of work?

Kepware will suddenly shut down without any warning and will not worry about current connections?
Or mabye it will wait until concurrent connections will ended?

9

It will run for two hours and shutdown. You would then have to start it again for another two hours.

I wouldn’t use this in a direct production environment. It’s really to test connections and try out functionality.

10

There may be many ways to connect. Off the top of my head:

  1. You may be able to connect with the built in (free) Ignition OPC-UA server. From your screenshots it looks like the device uses an Ethernet enabled PLC5.
  2. If the Kepware trial works connecting Ignition via the Kepware OPC-UA server - go that route. Obviously you would need to purchase a license from Kepware to remove the 2 hour free trial restriction.
  3. It may be possible to connect Ignition to your RSLinx instance via the OPC-COM module. Typically, this is the least recommended method since you’re going with the legacy route. In your case it might actually make sense since all of the communication to the PLC is going through the same process. You should be able to do a free trial first, but you would need to eventually purchase the OPC-COM module ($300, I think). There are also considerations on the RSLinx side, depending on licensing and if the installation is on the same machine or across the network. I know RSLinx Lite (Free Rockwell version)won’t work, Gateway and Professional should in any case, OEM would work locally, maybe across the network (I’m not sure) - you get the idea. This is one of those “try before you buy” opportunities. Tech support should also be able to help.
11

[quote=“nathan”]There may be many ways to connect. Off the top of my head:

  1. You may be able to connect with the built in (free) Ignition OPC-UA server. From your screenshots it looks like the device uses an Ethernet enabled PLC5.[/quote]
    Yes, device uses thernet enabled PLC5. But HMI software is look like searching only RsLinx software not some other OPC Server. Also, I can’t choose any other OPC Server.

In configuration I have:
RSLINX=1
OPC=True

1 - use
0 - do not use

When I tried to turn off RsLinx and comunicate to Ignition, nothing happend. Software is starting without errors but in server I don’t see any communication - “Clients 0 open”.

Any idea?

12

Hi,

First, I think we need to clarify a few things:

  1. OPC-DA and OPC-UA are very different. You first need to understand how “connections” happen with both.
    DA: The client (usually) has a name, called a “ProgID”. To connect, it uses this progid to look up a different id, the CLSID, in the registry. It then goes through Windows’ COM system to access the application identified by that CLSID.
    UA: Completely different, more like what you’re used to with “client/server” setups. The client uses TCP to connect to a server, which is waiting for requests.

So, first things first, since your client uses OPC-DA, there is nothing you can do with Ignition’s OPC-UA server, unless you were to install some sort of adapter, but let’s not get into that!

Now, that means you want to try a different OPC-DA server. As the people here have suggested, Kepware is a good one to try. But how? You would need to be able to select which server to use, but it doesn’t seem like you can. I’ve never seen an OPC client hard coded for a certain server, but it looks like that might be the case here.

NOW… there is one thing that comes to mind that you might be able to do. This is possible due to how OPC Clients normally connect to OPC Servers. It’s a hack, but it could work. Basically, the ProgId to Clsid lookup is in the registry. You could in theory remap RSLinx’s ProgId to point to Kepware’s Clsid. Then, if your client is trying to connect to RSLinx through that name, it will connect to kepware instead. If your client is trying to connect directly through the Clsid, there’s not much you can do. If you don’t feel comfortable working in Regedit, I don’t recommend you try this.

  1. Run regedit
  2. The CLSIDs can be found by going to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, and then finding the OPC server. The name you find, by the way, is the “ProgID”. The CLSID is the value under the CLSID key.
  3. Copy the CLSID for RSLinx and save it in a text file, so that you can set it back if necessary.
  4. Copy the CLSID value from kepware, and set it as the value under RSLinx.
  5. Restart your opc client, and see if kepware shows a connection.

Here’s what I have, might be different based on the versions you have installed:
RSLinx:
ProgId: [tt]RSLinx OPC Server[/tt]
CLSID: [tt]{A05BB6D5-2F8A-11D1-9BB0-080009D01446}[/tt]

Kepware:
ProgId: [tt]Kepware.KEPServerEX.V5[/tt]
CLSID: [tt]{B3AF0BF6-4C0C-4804-A122-6F3B160F4397}[/tt]

Assuming you can get connected, your next challenge will be the item addressing. However, lets start with this and see how it goes.

Good luck,

13

Unfortunatelly Kepware OPC Diagnostics do not show any connection attempts.

When launching HMI we have to wait few minutes. After that we have a lot of errors (see attachments, only few I attached). These error are appearing in the infinity.
And RsLinx do not start, what is correct of course.

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14

There is definitely no chance for your old Windows NT-based software to use Inductive Automation’s OPC-UA server. Ignition is very good software but it is not built for this purpose.

As it is, your software appears to be hard-coded to the OPC-DA server of RSLinx Classic. If you cannot change the OPC Server name, you cannot connect to any other OPC Server, including Kepware.

In fact, you may not be able to connect to a modern instance of RSLinx Classic. The OPC Automation Interface that your software appears to be using was re-named from “RSLinxOPCAuto.dll” to “RsiOpcAuto.dll” in RSLinx 2.30 over ten years ago. This might be why attempting to run this software in Windows 7 with RSLinx Classic is failing.

What driver are you using in RSLinx Classic ? If this is really a “serial card”, then the best approach might be to run your client software on Windows NT in VMWare Workstation with the existing OS and the existing version of RSLinx. VMWare will provide a Windows “COMx” serial port interface that you can map to a modern Windows 7 plug-and-play serial device on the host PC.