OPC Client

J E

Member
Join Date
Jan 2007
Location
Louisiana
Posts
53
Hi, I am considering creating an application in Visual Studio 2005 (Visual Basic) to monitor data in an SLC 5/05. I intend to use RSLinx Single Node as an OPC server. Are there any additional components I need to purcahse to accomplish this besides Linx and Visual Studio?

Also, can anyone can shed some light on the process of getting the data from RSLinx to VB? I am familiar with using DDE topics to talk to Excel and VBA, but the new VB apparently doesn't support DDE.

Thanks.
 
You'll need an OPC client of some sort on the .NET side - check out Kepware or opcconnect.com for info.

That being said, you CAN use DDE with .NET - check out the NDde library here. I've used that particular library a couple of times to talk DDE to Wonderware from a .NET app. Seems to work fairly well.


-Trevor
 
So the bottom line is there's no easy one-line function to access Linx data similar to the DDERequest function in VBA? And the easiest solution is spending an extra few hundred on a custom interface from Linx to VB? I guess that's OK.

What about this OPC .Net API? It seems to be an interface to do exactly what I would need but I can't really verify that without actually having the software to open any of it. Does anyone have experience with this library?
 
Yes, the .net API will do what you need, but not in one line of code.

If this is just a small one time thing then VB6 and DDE is fine. It works, and by the sound of it you will pound it out quicker.

If this is an ongoing piece of work that you want to support in the oncoming years and build upon it, then I would take the time and use the .net stuff. You can reuse your code in your future projects.
 
I have designed an OPC client in VB6 with kepware, they supply an opc interface + some examples, however most of this is not very well documented & it took a little time to debug it.
I'm not sure if linx has any simular interfaces, if linx is installed, in VB6 try adding components & see if linx opc interface is there.
 
if all you want to do is download data from SLC to PC using .net then you might want to look at free DF1 drivers for .net, check out tomantron.com. I guess its for .net framework 1.1 ...
 

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