OPC data into PLC

KyHx

Member
Join Date
Aug 2013
Location
Harrisburg, IL
Posts
6
I have a process that takes atmospheric monitoring information from a vendor manufactured OPC DA server by derived tags on my FT SE 10 server and moves them to a PLC for alarming.

I have been periodically locking up derived tags on my FT SE 10 server. I am moving ~2000 tags and I have tried delaying this up to 5 seconds with no real change of latency or random crashes.

So at this point I am entertaining alternatives.

  • VBA scripting on the HMI server that bypasses OPC and queries the database where the data originates from.
  • Factorytalk Linx Gateway
  • In-Rack OPC Client?


My Question

  1. Will Factorytalk Linx Gateway allow me to move data from a OPC DA server to my L72?
  2. Will a In-Rack OPC Server work as a client?
  3. Is there some other options to get the OPC DA information into my processor?.
 
May want to look at a Red lion datastation.



also, maybe kepware. I know they used to have a product for this sort of thing but not sure if they still market it.
 
Are you reading 2000 tags at once?
If so, can you not split the 2000 tags into (20) 100 tag groups? Then sequence through each group every so many seconds?
 
Do the problems go away with fewer tags? If it crashes due to vendor opc server then you know it can't be used.

How do you read them? Opc client by Rockwell?
 
I also don't understand your current scheme. Also, what kind of database is it?

If the Database is SQL based, then one of the option is eATM tMANAGER by Softing. I haven't used it but I heard decent thing about it.

If you are forced to use this 3rd party OPC DA, then there are a few options.

- 3rd party OPC DA> KEPware OPC Client > KEPware AB Unsoliticted driver. Then have PLC do a read on the Unsoliticted driver which act as a virtual AB database.

- Redlion Datastation. Talk to the 3rd party OPC > AB Virtual Chassis.
 
Yes, Kepware has an ODBC client driver that allows us to connect to ODBC Compliant databases and pull data via a query or stored procedure. You would use Advanced Tags, specifically link tags, to move the data read in and write it out to a controller via another driver.

It also have the ability to to serve data to an OPC AE (Alarm Conditions and Events) Client.

Lastly there are 2 drivers that support act like an AB controller. One was already mentioned that is the AB Ethernet Unsolicited driver, the other is the AB ControlLogix Unsolicited driver.

If you are curious about any of these options from KEPware then contact sales and they will connect you with a Sales Application Engineer to see what the best solution would for your needs.
 
Are you reading 2000 tags at once?
If so, can you not split the 2000 tags into (20) 100 tag groups? Then sequence through each group every so many seconds?

Seth,

This is one of the things I had tried. Starting and stopping derived tags still causes an eventual crash. Each time you start a derived tags it polls all tags instead of only tags that changed.

Latency did improve in this model.
 
Last edited:
I also don't understand your current scheme. Also, what kind of database is it?

If the Database is SQL based, then one of the option is eATM tMANAGER by Softing. I haven't used it but I heard decent thing about it.

If you are forced to use this 3rd party OPC DA, then there are a few options.

- 3rd party OPC DA> KEPware OPC Client > KEPware AB Unsoliticted driver. Then have PLC do a read on the Unsoliticted driver which act as a virtual AB database.

- Redlion Datastation. Talk to the 3rd party OPC > AB Virtual Chassis.

Harry,

Tanks for the input, it is a MS SQL server that runs on the same box as the OPC server. The OPC does some multi table structuring that I would like to avoid restructuring from Queries.
Redlion keeps coming up, seems like a decent option.
 
A problem is that when you request data from the OPC server, on the other hand the server has to read it from the original source and that generates delays.

if you write some stored procedures on the MS SQL server and you call them from VBA, for example using JDBC, it will go much faster for sure ... and without extra cost
 

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