OPC is a software interface interoperability standard that allows secure and reliable exchange of data between Windows programs and industrial hardware devices. It is platform-independent and ensures the continuous flow of information across multiple vendor devices. eInfochips has successfully customized an OPC classic server for one of our clients in Building Integration Systems (BIS).
The acronym “OPC” stands for “OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) for Process Control”. OLE is based on the Windows COM (Component Object Model) standard.
OPC standard is implemented in server/client pairs. The OPC server is a program that translates the hardware communication protocol used by a PLC into the OPC protocol. The OPC client software is a program that connects to the hardware, such as an HMI. The OPC client communicates with the OPC server to receive data or send commands to the hardware.
OPC specification describes the interface between clients and servers, servers and servers, including access to real-time data, monitoring of alarms and events, access to historical data and other applications.
The classic OPC connection scenario is a single server-client connection on a single computer, but there are more options which include:
The OPC DataHub is exclusively designed for all these tasks. A combination of OPC server and OPC client supports many connections. Thus, it can connect to several OPC servers at the same time for OPC aggregation and OPC bridging. Two OPC DataHubs can reflect data across a TCP network to provide OPC tunneling.
In addition to improving OPC server and client connections, the OPC DataHub can connect any OPC server or client to other applications as well, including Excel, a web browser, or any other database. And, it can be used to import OPC data into Linux or QNX.
Usage
Following OPC specifications are used in industries:
values of temperature, pressure, density, acceleration, and other types of process control data from OPC-DA server.
process alarms and events.
At eInfochips, we have provided embedded solutions for OPC’s industrial automation product line for our clients in embedded solutions. This includes detailed work on:
OPC server developed by eInfochips contains the following modules, functionalities and activities, listed below.
We have also developed OPC Clients for our customers, running on Linux OS to communicate with OPC server over Ethernet. This further communicates with OPC server for Reading and Writing data/parameters. In OPC Client, we had implemented OPC-DA (Data Access), OPC-HDA (Historical Data Access) and OPC-AE (Alarms & Events) specifications. OPC Client will communicate with OPC Server for fetching data from the PLC. At the other end, it will send/receive historical and live data of temperature, pressure, density, acceleration etc. from the OPC server to the cloud for storage and analysis.
To know more about how we can help you with OPC implementation for your building automation needs, drop us a line at marketing@einfochips.com. Learn more about our Industrial Automation Solutions