OPC Client Driver

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4. OPC Client

Introduction

The OPC Foundation defines open standard interfaces for industrial automation. The interface standards allow industrial software from different vendors to work together without the need for custom software interfaces.

The OPC Foundation defines two types of interface:

• OPC UA - A cross platform interface that uses different transport protocols.
• OPC Classic - A legacy interface that uses DCOM.

The Fernhill SCADA OPC Client driver acts as an OPC client application. The driver supports OPC UA Servers and OPC Classic Servers. Using the driver you can map Fernhill SCADA tags to items in an external OPC Server. Tag values can be read at a fixed interval, or on demand, or both.

Fernhill SCADA OPC Client Tags

The OPC Client driver provides these tag types:

Icon	Tag Type	Version	Description
	OPC Classic Connection	1.3	A connection to an external OPC Classic Data Access Server.
	OPC UA Connection	3.69	A connection to an external OPC UA Server.

To configure a connection to an OPC Server, do the following:

1. Create and configure one of these OPC Connection tags:
   • An OPC Classic Connection, or
   • An OPC UA Connection.
2. Create I/O Data Point Tags to represent items in the OPC Server. For each I/O Data Point Tag you create:
   • Set the IODataSource property to the name of the OPC Connection tag you created in step 1.
   • Set the IOItemName property to an item in the OPC Server.

I/O Data Point Tags

You can use these I/O Data Point Tags to represent individual data points in the OPC Server:

Icon	Tag Type	Version	Description
	I/O Analog Data Point Tag	3.12	Maps an Analog Data Point Tag to an external data source.
	I/O Digital Data Point Tag	3.12	Maps a Digital Data Point Tag to an external data source.
	I/O String Data Point Tag	3.12	Maps a String Data Point Tag to an external data source.
	I/O Word Data Point Tag	3.12	Maps a 16-bit Word Data Point Tag to an external data source.
	I/O Double Word Data Point Tag	3.12	Maps a 32-bit Double Word Data Point Tag to an external data source.
	I/O Long Word Data Point Tag	3.48	Maps a 64-bit Long Word Data Point Tag to an external data source.

OPC Interfaces Used

To maximize interoperability, the OPC Client Driver uses a minimal subset of the OPC Interfaces:

Further Information

Fernhill SCADA Drivers

For information about other drivers available in Fernhill SCADA.

Glossary

For the meaning of terms used in Fernhill SCADA.

Fernhill SCADA Version 3.86 (20220611.2). Copyright © 2012-2022 Fernhill Software Ltd: All rights reserved.