Free OPC DA to SQL Interface

[thomassorensen]

Hi All

I have seen multiple questions on this forum about interfacing SQL from OPC Sources (such as PLC), without any good and/or free options available. I wanted to see if I could change that, so I have released a productized version of the toolkit that i have developed over the years and that I normally use to connect SQL to OPC Data Sources.

Its free, and so far it has support for MS SQL and OPC DA.

I have the same toolkit running on multiple critical systems today, the only difference is that I had to remove a lot of functionality and reimplement the OPC Interface due to license issues.

I would love to get some feedback on the current design and suggestions for new functionality.

Is this something that is useful to anyone?

http://bluxware.com

Thanks
Thomas

 

[widelto]

It looks promising, I downloaded it and am going to read documentation.

 

[exabmorgan]

Interesting. Is there a property on a OPCItem to see the Quality presented by the OPC server?

 

[JesperMP]

Very interesting Thomas.

I can see that you have both OPC read and write methods.
Most free or low-cost OPC tools I know of only do one way, reading of OPC tags.
With your tool it should be possible to implement protocol gateways and recipe systems.
I also like that it is a Windows service.

From the look of it, the editor looks intimidating. I think that it would be a great help if you have a few example projects.

Definitely something I would take a look at, given some free time.
Unfortunately I am maxed out at the moment.

 

[thomassorensen]

Hi All

Thanks for the feedback, it much appreciated.

exabmorgan:

i just realized that the interface in the documentation did not match my actual implementation and that quality was not implemented at all. I have updated the documentation and I will release a new version in a week or so (I have some other stuff that I would like to add as well).

I have implemented it as a simple QualityGood property that returns a bool. Would that be sufficient? Or would it add value to also add it as a string?

JesperMP:

I agree that the interface can look a bit intimidating at first. One of the things that I'm currently working on is Intelligence/autocomplete for all the expressions. I think this would make it way easier to figure out how to enter valid expressions. I have a working prototype (see screenshot attached to this post) but I takes some time to make a nice clean implementation. Currently the expressions uses VB.NET syntax.

It’s a good suggestion to add some examples, here is what I'm thinking:

1. Parameter download from a SQL database initiated from the PLC (purpose: Show OPC Wait/Read/Write and SQL activities)
2. Workflows for a custom OEE System (purpose: show how state machines can be used)
3. Daily download of weather data from the internet to the PLC (purpose: Show how to download data from the internet to a PLC)

Here is how the new autocomplete will look:

 

[exabmorgan]

Thanks for looking that. I'm only ever interested in 'good' vs 'bad', but I see 'uncertain' and sometimes sub-codes of quality popping up in google searches. but the server I use (modbus) doesn't use them.

• Another thing I thought up while scanning over the tool box was the invokemethod expression/function. I see that could being a very powerful input/output method. I thought about adding a MQTT function, just because there is a convenient open source library (M2Mqtt) not because I had a direct need. I couldn't figure out how to add their namespace (uPLibrary.Networking) to the list, the assemblies in dialog (variable types) only lists mscorlib and the built-in one.
• Also wasn't sure if variables (where I'd be adding a client object) in the 'scope' lasted through multiple iterations of the flowchart or get reinitialized every time.
• Just an idea; should be taken with a grain of salt, I don't have an application for it, just playing around.

I like your autocomplete feature. Makes it kind of feel like LINQpad.

 

[ASF]

I'd be very interested in this one. I probably won't have time to play with it this side of Christmas, but I'll definitely download it and have a look when I can. Any documentation you can add in would be awesome!

 

[thomassorensen]

Exabmorgan:


1:
Unfortunately there is no easy way to add a reference to a 3rd party assembly today. My plan is to add support for custom code later this year, but I want to do this in a way that is powerful/flexible while usable for people with limited or even without any prior knowledge about VB.NET. My plan is to add a Code Activity that would allow users to write custom code snippets in VB.NET or C# (i'm thinking somewhat the same design as the Database Query Activity)


But the idea to support M2Mqtt is actually interesting. Do you know if anyone is using this today (I had never heard about this standard before)?


2:
Variable are in scope as long as the activity that you define them in as in scope. So if you define a variable for the root activity, then the variable will be kept for the full lifetime of the workflow (hope that makes sense?)


ASF:
Have you looked at http://bluxware.com/Documentation ? I’m currently working on a section about the user interface, but other then that, then I think that it's already fairly well documented. if there is anything specific that is not completely clear, then please let me know. Besides the documentation, then i will also add some examples in the next release, hopefully that’ll also make it easier to get started.

 

[JesperMP]

I know from experience that writing manuals and instructions can be a dreadful chore.
So I suggest you go the easy and possibly much better route for the "getting started" instructions.
Go through the steps of creating the sample yourself and record it while you comment what you do. Then post the recording as a youtube video.

 

[the_msp]

But the idea to support M2Mqtt is actually interesting. Do you know if anyone is using this today (I had never heard about this standard before)?

Ignition SCADA has 3rd party MQTT modules, from cirrus link, not M2

 

[ASF]

Exabmorgan:
ASF:
Have you looked at http://bluxware.com/Documentation ? I’m currently working on a section about the user interface, but other then that, then I think that it's already fairly well documented. if there is anything specific that is not completely clear, then please let me know. Besides the documentation, then i will also add some examples in the next release, hopefully that’ll also make it easier to get started.

Ah, nope, I hadn't actually had a chance to dig into it that much yet. I'll check it out. Thanks!

 

[Mark-]

Hello,

> But the idea to support [MQTT]... Do you know if anyone is using this today...

Yes, PeakHMI supports MQTT as a client and customers are using it.

 

[exabmorgan]

The thing I ran across was just a proposal. The originators of the idea wanted to use a NoSQL database I guess they'd written a MQTT broker for.

I think the collection point was going to be a forklift with a touchscreen computer. With a canbus interface and a modbus (serial or ethernet) PLC collecting some data.

 

[thomassorensen]

Thanks for all the comments. looks like M2Mqtt/MQTT is something that I should look more into.

I have released a new version (Version 1.3) of OPC Workflow. This release focuses on making it easier and more intuitive to work with OPC Workflow Studio. As always, feedback are greatly appreciated.


It contains the following updates:

• Quality and Timestamp metadata added to OPCItemValue
• Expressions now has IntelliSense and build in documentation (Yay!)
• OPC Wait Timeout support added
• Ribbon is now hidden by default for a cleaner UI
• Moved application to Windows CommonAppData folder
• State machines are now partially supported (online debugging still needs some work)
• Recipe download example is now included (explanation of the example can be found here: http://bluxware.com/examples/)

 

[exabmorgan]

Hi,

I loaded your new version on another PC (win7 sp1) that I'd loaded MSE2014 to play with the database part.

I just tried opening he recipe example and it throws an error. I tried making a new wf, save, exit and reopen and I get the same error about system.array.empty.