OPC stands for «Open Platform Communications» that is a set of specifications and standards for industrial telecommunication. OPC defines the transfer of real-time plant data between control devices from various manufacturers. The aim of OPC was to support a common bridge for Windows-based software applications and process control hardware. OPC was designed to minimize the quantity of duplicated effort made by hardware companies and their software partners.

Tibbo OPC Server supports the most typical OPC spec - OPC Data Access (OPC DA), which is used for reading and writing real-time data. Any device that supports the Tibbo AggreGate protocol can be a data source. AggreGate is a white-label IoT integration platform utilizing modern network technologies to configure, control, monitor and support electronic devices, as well as shared networks of such electronic devices. It also assists you with aggregating device data in the cloud, where you can "slice and dice" it according to your requirements. Moreover, the platform allows other enterprise applications transparently access this data through the AggreGate server.

Tibbo OPC server has built-in AggreGate network protocol. It can either communicate with any Tibbo devices by AggreGate agent protocol or connect to AggreGate server. The AggreGate agent protocol open-source implementation is made public for Java, C#, and C++ programming languages, so your connection scheme is not confined to Tibbo devices or AggreGate server only.

Examples

The simplest example: TPS reads Tibbit #29 (Ambient temperature meter), sends data to OPC server by AggreGate agent protocol.

A more complex example: you have a Windows-based PC that controls a wood processing machine with the help of AggreGate server by the Modbus protocol. If Tibbo OPC server is connected with AggreGate server, the data from the machine is transmitted to Tibbo OPC server and, as a result, you can monitor and operate the machine via any OPC client (e.g. Matrikon Client).

Technical Specification

• Compatibility with Windows XP/2003 or later (Microsoft Visual C++ 2013 redistributable is required - installed automatically)
• Support of DA Asynchronous I/O 2.0 and Synchronous I/O with COM/DCOM technology

Tibbo OPC Server transmits the information on the Value, Quality and Timestamp of an item (tag) to the OPC Client applications. These fields are read from the AggreGate variables.

The process values are set to Bad [Configuration Error] quality if OPC Server loses communication with its data source (AggreGate Agent or AggreGate Server). The quality is set to Uncertain [Non-Specific] if the AggreGate variable value is empty.

In the following chart below you can see a concordance table of the AggreGate variables and the OPC data types:

It also supports arrays of simple data types listed above (VT_ARRAY).

Screenshots

Tibbo OPC Server

Tibbo OPC Server Configurator

To learn more about Tibbo OPC server, go to the official Tibbo website: http://tibbo.com/solutions/opc-server.html