Hello there,
I am currently trying to establish OPC-UA communication between B&R PLC and a Ignition. I have succesfully created a connection between PLC’s OPC-UA server and Ignition client. I can see my PLC device in Ignition Gateway 7.8 - Devices (I use TCP Driver) and in Ignition Designer - OPC Browser, with two folders - “4080” containing two Tags and [Diagnostics] with Tag “Is Connected”
Unfortunately, B&R does not support browsing, or so it seems. (Even though there is a browse option in B&R Default view configuration). I am therefore trying to create a tags which would allow me to control variables in my PLC.
In Tag Editor, I have chosen Ignition OPC-UA Server as Server. I am now having problem with what should I pick as a path. I have tried [PLC]::Server:Test_Variable1 and variations of it, but nothing seems to help. Just FYI, that is how B&R organizes their paths to variables ‘::config:variable’ and that is also how I could reach those variables at B&R to B&R OPC communication.
I have tried to assign same Roles in both Ignition Gateway and my B&R PLC with no result whatsoever. I might need to go over this topic in Inductive University to gain a better understanding.
I appreciate any help. Thank you.
Best regards,
Martin
This is the wrong driver to use.
If the PLC has a built in OPC UA server then you aren't going to be adding a device in Ignition at all - you just add a new OPC UA connection.
It will be similar to these instructions for Kepware: Connecting to Kepware OPC-UA - Ignition User Manual 7.8 - Ignition Documentation
Thanks for the super quick response, highly appreaciated.
I followed the guide and I received a ‘Faulted’ connection status. According to guide it might be due to certificates. I tried downloading the Ignition client certification and adding it to my PLC configuration, but no luck. I will try and contact B&R support, from what I have heard earlier there were already succesful applications with B&R and Ignition, so hopefully they are going to have helpful resources.
I looked into this a few years ago with our B&R (the project fizzled so never completed it) but B&R support for OPC-UA seemed all over the place depending on which controller you are using. For ours we needed to enable the OPC-UA server on the controller (which later we found our CPUs were not powerful enough to support the logic and OPC) then you still need to do configuration in the B&R software to map your variables and expose them to the OPC-UA server.
It is defiantly possible, but just might take a bit of back and forth on both sides to get the config right.