OPC Server/Client config: FieldPoint I/O data from LabVIEW to InTouch?

[GregLPease]

Which OPC Servers/Clients should I use to relay NI FieldPoint I/O data from LabVIEW to another HMI program (InTouch)?

National Instruments OPC Server?
Wonderware OPC server?
Kepware OPC Server?
A combination of these?

InTouch does not have an I/O Server to communicate directly with the FieldPoint I/O system. However, Wonderware tech support knows it is possible through OPC servers.

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Greg

[Aaron_G]

Greg,

You will need to install the NI-FieldPoint driver software. The NI-FieldPoint driver software includes the FieldPoint OPC Server. InTouch will act as a client to the FieldPoint OPC Server. After software installation, you will need to configure the FieldPoint modules via Measurement & Automation Explorer, once that is done, the OPC server is ready for you to connect to from InTouch.

Regards,
Aaron

[GregLPease]

Aaron,

I really appreciate the reply.

I was finally able to test the connection last week at a research facility out in the field and it worked great.

I just wanted to close the loop by adding the Wonderware side to your explanation.

1. InTouch as the OPC client
2. Wonderware's DAS FSGateway as a protocol translator between the OPC Server and InTouch
3. Wonderware’s System Management Console (SMC) to configure FSGateway
4. NI's FieldPoint OPC server to channel values from FieldPoint I/O to InTouch
5. NI's Measurement and Automation Explorer (MAX) to configure the FieldPoint modules

Greg

EDIT: I just wanted to add that contrary to the Message Subject, values are going directly from the FieldPoint I/O to InTouch. LabVIEW is not involved at all.

Message Edited by GregLPease on 04-26-2005 10:15 AM

[bhfletcher]

Greg,
I am VERY new to NI products... and need to allow thirdparty OPC enabled products to access NI Fieldpoint I/O. I have read your thread but it leaves much to my imagination. I want Allen Bradley softlogix to be able to use the fieldpoint I/O (communicating thru RSLinx I presume). I'm not sure what I need to CONFIGURE in the NI Measurement and Automation Explorer to make this possible. Also, you mentioned that there was some wonderware translation software you were using... what's the deal there?

Bryan

[GregLPease]

Bryan,

Aside from displaying a couple of temperatures from a FieldPoint Thermocouple module in Wonderware's InTouch HMI, I am also very new to NI products.

I have also never used any Allen-Bradley products.

Steps 1 through 3 could be anywhere from very similar to completely different for Allen-Bradley. I can't really help you there.

However, if you are curious about the Wonderware side of communications and how FSGateway fits in, here are a few details.

Wonderware has a slew of I/O Servers and Data Access Servers (DAS) for it's InTouch HMI software (and all of its other products: InControl, InBatch, InTrack, etc). These servers are written for specific field devices and protocols from various companies such as Siemens, Allen-Bradley, and GE Fanuc. They all allow the access and configuration of PLCs and other systems from within Wonderware's products. They are easy to set up and simple to use.

However, they couldn't possibly write a dedicated I/O server for every single device and protocol. This is where Wonderware's FSGateway software product comes in. One of FSGateway's capabilities is to serve data from the InTouch HMI to other devices via the OPC protocol. So as long as the device you are attempting to communicate with has an OPC server you can collect and send data to it from InTouch.

In this case, the NI Fieldpoint OPC server can be downloaded free with the Fieldpoint driver off of NI's ftp server.

ftp://ftp.ni.com/support/fieldpoint/Server/FIELDPOINT41.zip

I had to do the following on my PC so that other programs could make use of the newly installed OPC server.

Copy FieldPointOPC2.exe from C:\Program Files\National Instruments\FieldPoint\ to the C:\WINNT\system32\ directory.

Open a command prompt: Start > Run > Command

Type the following while in the system32 directory to manually register the OPC files on your computer:

C:\WINNT\system32>FieldPointOPC2.exe /regserver
C:\WINNT\system32>OPCEnum.exe /regserver
C:\WINNT\system32>regsvr32 opccomn_ps.dll
C:\WINNT\system32>regsvr32 opcproxy.dll

Once I plugged my laptop into the Ethernet switch I ran NI's MAX. MAX automatically saw the FP-2000, FP-AI-100, and FP-TC-120 on the network in the 'Remote Systems' tree and all of their corresponding item names and addresses. I did nothing to specify the use of OPC in MAX. These Fieldpoint devices had been used before and I assume they were also configured before so as to weather or not I actually had to run this program I'm not quite sure. It was nice test to see the devices on the network and all of their settings anyways.

I hope this clears a few things up. I bet Aaron G could help you out more than I.

Greg