OPC and Ethernet IP

How does OPC work with ethernet ip? is it a part of ethernet ip?

I need to talk to some third party devices over ethernet that support OPC and i will be using a contrologix plc on ethernet ip.

How would i get this devices tags into the plc?

Generally OPC is used as a 3rd party server that resides on a PC and can read/write tags. I think for your application you would need the OPC server itself to relay information from the device to the ControlLogix PLC.

This is unless the 3rd party device supports some kind of protocol the PLC can read directly, Modbus over TCP/IP or something.

Just because its a Cat-5 cable going into a device doesn't mean they can talk to each other. My guess is unless you got lucky, you'll need some 3rd party protocol converter to make this work or a PC with an OPC relay client.

If you give us some more information on the devices your trying to read from, maybe we can get to specifics to help you.

OPC itself has nothing to do with any communications method. In the frame of reference you are using it, OPS Stands for "Object Linking and Embedding for Process Control", and is an extension of the COM/DCOM model of programming.

The basic idea, is to have a driver that presents a unified front end to clients. It doesn't actually matter what device you are communicating with, the actual OPC server provides the data using a single, uniform API through COM/DCOM.

Take a look at:
opcfoundation.org for specifics.

Kepware's Kepserver EX is an OPC Server with an excellent Ethernet IP Driver that I've had good success with, you can download the demo version and it will run for 2 hours...
http://www.kepware.com/Products/kepserverex_features.asp

Attached is the info on the 3rd party controller.

Here it is.

From the look of the PDF you posted, the ACS system has its own OPC driver for Windows to communicate with the device. From what I can see, not having used this software, you'd need an OPC server to communicate with the ControlLogix (RSLinx?) and something to bridge the 2 servers together.

I don't see anything in the document that would allow it to directly communicate with a PLC.

Something like this from KEPWare might work.
http://www.kepware.com/Products/products_linkmaster.asp

Hi The_Plc_Kid. From what I see on page 1, it looks like Plast-Control provides the OPC Server software for you, so Kepware wouldn't be required to talk to the ACS. So, all you need to do is get the data from the ACS into ControlLogix? The ControlLogix can not serve as an OPC Client because OPC is based on Microsoft technologies, as rdcast mentioned, so it looks like you'll be stuck with a PC talking between the ACS and the ControlLogix. The PC will have the Plast-Control OPC Server for talking to the ACS and Kepserver or the like for talking to the PLC, then a higher level program as the OPC Client (A VB Program? Kepserver includes some nice samples) to exchange the data between the the two servers with the device data.

This is not ideal, it would be so much easier if Plast Control would provide an Ethernet IP Driver and could be added as a "Generic Ethernet Module". Are there any other Industrial Ethernet protocols on the ACS? Modbus TCP? I think Prosoft has a nice Modbus TCP card for the ControlLogix.

In this an application for the Prosoft In-rack PC? I've alwyas wondered what the market was for this device, sounds like it could be useful in this application

http://www.prosoft-technology.com/content/view/full/10951

gcc's suggested product looks pretty cool, I wasn't aware of that. That would remove the need for a PC-based OPC Server like Kepserver, however, you would still need a PC-based OPC Client program to bridge the two data sources, something like Christoff84s suggestion would fill the bill nicely without you having to write the code, but you are still stuck with a third device (A PC) in the middle. Unless Prosoft's In-Rack PC can have additional software installed on it? If so, you could put the Kepware bridge SW right on that PC in the ControlLogix rack, that would be cool.

Test