Why does lookout have no CatID in the registry?

[cprice17]

I have been having problems connecting to a Lookout 5.0 OPC server. I noticed that the Lookout OPC server is missing a CatID in the registry, and my other two OPC servers (RSLinx, KepServerEX) have the same value for this field. I have modified my registry to include the following which is already listed under my other two OPC servers:

{6E6170F0-FF2D-11D2-8087-00105AA8F840}
Registered as OPC 2.0 compliant Server
{63D5F430-CFE4-11D1-B2C8-0060083BA1FB}
Registered as OPC 1.0 compliant Server

You can see this by using the NI server explorer and viewing properties of your OPC server. Look at the Registry tab.

After making these additions to my Registry I am able to connect to Lookout but I am getting some strange be
havior, such as only being able to have one active connection. Can someone explain to me why Lookout does not have these values in the Registry, and if adding them is not valid please explain.
Thanks for your help.

[Mike S. @NI]

I can check into the registry issue if you can provide more information. What type of problem are you having with your Lookout OPC server? Are you using local or remote OPC? What is the client application? Can you please elaborate more on the symptoms?

Regards,
Michael Shasteen
Applications Engineering
National Instruments
www.ni.com/ask
1-866-ASK-MY-NI

[cprice17]

The problem is that my data collection software (VisualPlant by EMT) is unable to browse to the National Instruments.LookoutOPCServer. When I added an Identification category to the registry entry for the lookout OPC server I was able to connect but with some odd behavior. My setup is:
2 machines each running Win NT4 SP6a. One machine is running Lookout as well as several other OPC servers. The other is running my data collection software. I am able to connect to lookout using several client apps on my data collection machine (Kepware's Quick Client, and Matrikon's Client), however my data collection software (VisualPlant) cannot see Lookout. Using the NI server explorer and viewing the properties of all of my OPC servers I noticed that Lookout was the on
ly one listed that did not have a CatID. By modifying the registry and adding the ID's listed in my original note I was able to connect using VisualPlant, however this exibited some odd behavior. It appears that adding this setting prevents multiple OPC connections to Lookout. If you have any suggestions I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks.

[Mike S. @NI]

Lookout is an OPC 1.0, but not 2.0, compliant server. The "implemented categories" (CATID) registry sub-key is part of the OPC 2.0 spec. If you modify the registry and adds the CLSIDs, and the client software connects to the LookoutOPCServer using the OPC 2.0 spec, you will most definitely experience problems.

[cprice17]

The OPC foundation website shows that National Instruments.OPCLookoutDrivers (Local Server) is OPC Data Access 2.0 Compliant. We are running Lookout 5, and my impression was that it is 2.0 compliant. Just to verify Lookout 5, is OPC 1.0, not 2.0 compliant? Sorry to question, I just want to make sure that this is the case.
Thanks for your help.

[Mike S. @NI]

I have been misinformed. Apparently, the Lookout OPC server is OPC 2.0 compliant, but the installer does not register the proper keys. The current fix involves running two simple commands from the windows run prompt:

1. regsvr32 "c:\program files\national instruments\logos\lkopc.dll"
2. "c:\program files\national instruments\logos\lkopc.exe" /regserver"

If this does not work, check the correct location of the DLL and EXE and change the commands accordingly. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.

[cprice17]

Thanks for your help Mike. This has solved our issue and we are now able to collect data.

[cprice17]

I do have one additional question on this topic. Is this the same if your are running Win2k? Thanks.

[Mike S. @NI]

2000 is built off of NT, so they are very similar. This situation should not be any different.