Fieldpoint Opc Server - National Instruments FieldPoint FP-1600 User Manual

FieldPoint OPC Server

© National Instruments Corporation
OPC (OLE for Process Control) is an industry standard device interface
specification that provides interoperability between field devices such as
FieldPoint and application software packages. The FieldPoint OPC server,
like the other FieldPoint interfaces, imports the I/O Items that you
configured in FieldPoint Explorer and makes them available as OPC Items
to an OPC client, a software program designed to communicate with OPC
servers. The FieldPoint OPC server allows any application written as an
OPC client to access the FieldPoint hardware over the serial port. Because
OPC is based in part on Microsoft's DCOM (Distributed Component
Object Model), it is even possible for an OPC client on one computer to
access FieldPoint hardware connected to the serial port of another
computer if the two computers are networked together.
OPC clients might differ in the features they offer and their presentation
of the OPC interface for the FieldPoint OPC server. Refer to the
documentation on using the OPC client features of your application for
detailed instructions on how to access an OPC server. However, the basic
steps involved are similar for most OPC client applications.
Follow these steps to use the FieldPoint OPC server:
1. Open the FieldPoint OPC server,
Instruments.OPCFieldPoint
This server was registered with Windows when you installed the
FieldPoint software. OPC clients should be able to show you a list
of available registered servers, but you might have to type this name
in yourself. The OPC client might automatically connect to the server
when you select it, but if you are given the option to explicitly connect
to the FieldPoint OPC server, you should do so.
2. Create a group.
Groups are a collection of I/O Items. Some OPC clients might not give
you the option of creating groups, or they might be created for you.
3. Select the I/O Items, which you configured in FieldPoint Explorer, that
you want to read or write as a part of this group.
Many OPC clients can use the "Browse Address Space" feature of
the FieldPoint OPC server to show you a list of all of the I/O Items
you configured in FieldPoint Explorer. However, if the OPC client you
are using does not support this feature, you might need to type the Item
IDs of the I/O Items directly. The naming convention of the FieldPoint
Item IDs is
Comm resource name\Device Name\I/O Item name
where the Comm resource name, Device name, and I/O Item name are
Chapter 3
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Hardware and Software Configuration
FieldPoint FP-1600 User Manual