How do I pass alarm Acknowledgment from Win-911 to Lookout?

[JForster]

I am touching off Specter Instruments' dialer software (Win-911 ) alarms from Lookout through the NI OPC. Question is, from WIn-911, how do I "poke" back to Lookout an acknowledgment of the alarm. I have tried to designate in Win-911 a pushbutton and a switch, and neither of them seem to "get it".

[Prashanth]

Hi Forster,

Lookout has an OPO Client Object that you can use to communicate with an OPC server. Are you trying to communicate from Win911 software product to Lookout? If so, what medium/protocols are you using?

Regards,
Prashanth

[JForster]

Lookout has an OPO Client Object that you can use to communicate with an OPC server.
I don't know what OPO client object is. I think you mean OPC Client Object, and I can create one of these, but I don't know how or why to use it. When Lookout starts up, there is a National Instruments.LookoutOPCServer that runs.

Win911 has a utility program that can browse and 'see' all the boolean and digital values of the Lookout Objects (with the possible exception of the data table object). Win911 hears and responds to all these when the OPC server name is plugged into what it calls ACCESS NAME, and the Lookout Object name is plugged into what it calls ITEM NAME. i.e. [\\Networkcomputername\processname\objectname] or a real one I use is \\.\SrvPro\RivRd\Alarm9Comm.Active.

Are you trying to communicate from Win911 software product to Lookout? If so, what medium/protocols are you using?
Yes I am trying to communicate from Win911 to Lookout. Win911 tries to 'poke' back to the OPC server: a boolean 0/1, an incrementing interger for a life-sign, and a string, when the alarms are acknowledged over the phone. What Object in Lookout can I set up to 'receive' these 'pokes'? I have tried a switch, but that doesn't change in Lookout when I try to change the value in the OPC client cell.

[Prashanth]

Hi Forster,

I am not too familiar with the Win911 software but am assuming that it is acting like a generic OPC client. The OPC client object in Lookout is used to talk to an OPC server. Is Lookout and Win911 running on the same computer? Can you write to the Lookout server object items from server explorer?

Regards,

Prashanth

[JForster]

Can you write to the Lookout server object items from server explorer?

 
Yes, it took awhile for the Explorer to load all the tags, but once there, I could read and write to a switch. Question now is Win911 wants to send a text string for Acknowledgement. What control could I use to 'get' a text string?  I tried the 'keyboard' text entry, and it didn't respond.

John

[Khalid]

You could give DataTable cell a try, using it as a text value.  E.g., Table1.A1.txt.

-Khalid

[labdog]

I was able to get an acknowlagement from Lookout to Win911.  One problem is Win911 only acts as a client.
Create an Acknowlage button, write an expression object to look at the button  if(AckButton,"ack",0). In Win911 for the digital object connect to the expression object through the Lookout OPC server.
This will write a "ack" to Win911.
There is no Lookout object that I could find that will Read/Write through OPC once it is linked to another object. I worked on this for awhile. You may be able to do a system Ack from Win911 to lookout to" AckAll" Alarms.
Paul

[Micham]

You should try U.C.ME-OPC. See http://www.controlsee.com . You may download a fully functional evaluation copy. It supports both OPC and DDE. It may run as Windows service or standard application.

Mike.