Table of Contents

OPC-UA client plugin

The plugin requires a valid Dewesoft license. To test the plugin, you can use an Evaluation license. For more information about licensing follow —> License.

Global Settings

Under settings window go to the Extension option and click the plus sign. Then find the OPC UA Client plugin in the list and activate it as it is shown on the following picture.

To enter the plugin settings you need to click the OPC-UA plugin under the Plugin list, then in the right window the settings will open.

The following settings of the plugin will appear:

  1. Clock-mode - with the new v3 of OPC-UA plugin only Softy-Sync option is avaialble
  2. Log level - the level of log that will be saved durring the acquistion. The log can also be disabled, by choosing option Off.
  3. OPCA UA path levels fro “Ch. no.” generation - Ch.no provides additional information of the channel. The user gets the tree-path of the file up to the selected level.
  4. Adding the OPC-UA server - by clicking on the plus button the user can add the URL to the server.
    • User can choose a custom name for the server for a beter differentiation.
    • In the same column there will be additional information regarding the Type and Status of the server.
    • When connected to 3rd party server ( Not Dewesoft OPC-UA client server plugin), the user can select “Use Source time”. This option will only save new updated values and ignore the same consecutive values. This is useful when you have a slow-rate channels (eg. Temperature channels)

OPC UA Client setup

On the top of the OPC UA Client setup screen there is a drop-down menu, where you can select which previously added OPC UA Server you want to access. If the Server is properly configured and Client is connected a status Connected will apear.

Under Config tab you can use the browser window to browse through the tree structure. The current location is always presented in the browser. When you enter the wanted location path you need to press the Go button to jump to the location..

Under Nodes you can see nodes contained at chosen path along with properties: Identifier, Name, Type and Status of each nod. You can select which nodes you want to use in Dewesoft with the Used toggle (Off/On) button.

When anything is changed in the Server you can simply press the Reconfigure button and the channels will adjust automatically.

In the Channels tab all the used OPC UA channels are listed. OPC UA method nodes and grouped as Methods (not supported in OPC-UA client V3), OPC UA variables and properties are grouped as Variables.

For each channel you can see different information and attributes.

  • Under Type you can see the data type of the variable.If “DsChannelType” is shown here then Dewesoft DAQ profile mode is enabled and data type is inherently Double.

  • with Sample rate you can choose the rate at which data is being fetched from the server. If this attributeis read-only then it shows the original sampling rate at the source (Dewesoft OPC UA Server).

  • Throughput shows incoming rate (samples per second) and this depends on network bandwidth.

  • Values represents last node value and can give quick insight if channel us alive. With Units you can set the channels units.
  • Under Units you can define the unit for the wanted channel
  • Status shows you if the channel is read properly or if it can not be read by the client
  • Ch.no will present the path of the channel. The path size is related to the Ch.no settings defined in Global settings.

Control channels

The OPC UA Client plugin supports calling OPC UA methods. You can easily associate method call, input or output with various Input control display visual controls and design a nice customized user interface. Calling method is normally associated to push button.To do so go to design mode, add “Input control display”, choose “Control channel” as Display type and pick “Push button” form the dropdown menu. You can also enter custom Button text. On the right select channel “Channel”. To use input or output parameters you can add another input control display, choose “Control channel” as Display type and pick “Input field” or other suitable type. On the right select channel containing either “outparam” or “inparam”(Figure 10). Leave design mode, enter some parameters into your input control, press enter to confirm input and then click on the button and see the results in output associated control.

With the Input control display we can also remotely change the values of the OPC UA variables. Variables should have writable permission on the server side. In design mode add Input control display, choose “Control channel” as Display type, from the dropdown menu choose Input field or any other suitable type (turn knob, slider, etc.). Then click the desired channel on the right. Leave design mode to preform control.