OPC stands for «Open Platform Communications» that is a set of specifications and standards for industrial telecommunication. OPC defines the transfer of real-time plant data between control devices from various manufacturers. The aim of OPC was to support a common bridge for Windows-based software applications and process control hardware. OPC was designed to minimize the quantity of duplicated effort made by hardware companies and their software partners.
The most typical OPC specification, OPC Data Access (OPC DA), is supported by Tibbo OPC Server. Any device compatible with the Tibbo AggreGate protocol can be a data source. AggreGate is a white-label IoT integration platform using up-to-date network technologies to control, configure, monitor and support electronic devices, along with distributed networks of such electronic devices. It also helps you collect device data in the cloud, where you can slice and dice it in alignment with your needs. In addition, the platform lets other enterprise applications transparently access this data via the AggreGate server.
Tibbo OPC server has built-in AggreGate network protocol. It can either communicate with any Tibbo devices by AggreGate agent protocol or connect to AggreGate server. The AggreGate agent protocol open-source implementation is made public for Java, C#, and C++ programming languages, so your connection scheme is not confined to Tibbo devices or AggreGate server only.
Examples
A simple example: TPS reads Tibbit #29 (Ambient temperature meter) and forwards data to OPC server via AggreGate agent protocol.
A complex example: a wood processing machine is controlled by a Windows-based PC with the help of AggreGate server by the Modbus protocol. When Tibbo OPC server is connected with AggreGate server, the data from the wood processing machine is sent to Tibbo OPC server, and thus, we can monitor and operate the machine through any OPC client.
Technical Specification
- Compatibility with Windows XP/2003 or later (Microsoft Visual C++ 2013 redistributable is required - installed automatically)
- Support of DA Asynchronous I/O 2.0 and Synchronous I/O with COM/DCOM technology
Tibbo OPC Server transmits the information on the Value, Quality and Timestamp of an item (tag) to the OPC Client applications. These fields are read from the AggreGate variables.
The process values are set to Bad [Configuration Error] quality if OPC Server loses communication with its data source (AggreGate Agent or AggreGate Server). The quality is set to Uncertain [Non-Specific] if the AggreGate variable value is empty.
In the following chart below you can see a concordance table of the AggreGate variables and the OPC data types:
| AggreGate Data Type | OPC Data Type |
|---|---|
| INTEGER | VT_I4 |
| STRING | VT_BSTR |
| BOOLEAN | VT_BOOL |
| LONG | VT_I8 |
| FLOAT | VT_R4 |
| DOUBLE | VT_R8 |
| DATE | VT_DATE |
| DATATABLE | OPC VT_BSTR (by default) |
| COLOR | VT_I4 |
| DATA | VT_BSTR |
It also supports arrays of simple data types listed above (VT_ARRAY).
To learn more about Tibbo OPC server, go to the official Tibbo website: http://tibbo.com/solutions/opc-server.html