Groov OPC Communication

When somebody says: “An external software needs to get data from Groov EPIC thru OPC-UA.”

Is that possible?
How do you implement it?

Thank you.

No. Ignition Edge can not support external connections. It was a choice made by Inductive themselves, all Ignition Edge instances (for example, if you ran it on a Raspberry Pi) can not support external connections.

For external OPC-UA connections, you need the full licensed version of Ignition.

Hi Beno,

Thank you. I felt weird with the idea at first. Groov Epic can read data from standalone controller like allen-bradley and Siemens thru OPC-UA. But Groov Epic which is build for communication do not have this same feature.

If I have full license of Ignition, do I need any addition hardware like windows to make Groov Epic OPC-UA readable? or Standalone EPIC with full license will do?

Thank you.

To conclude this thread:
Groov EPIC does not support OPC UA.
If you have a device that is OPC UA readable, Groov EPIC cannot read data via OPC UA.
On the other hand, if you have a device that can collect data via OPC UA, that device cannot read EPIC data via OPC UA.

That’s not accurate.

groov EPIC reads OPC-UA just fine. If you have an existing OPC-UA server, you can point groov View at it and read/write.

groov EPIC also bundles Ignition Edge, an OPC-UA server that can act as a bridge to other devices, though I’m not sure whether it’s accessible from off the EPIC box.

For more detail and a more official answer, please contact our Support team: they can give you all the answers you’re looking for:

https://www.opto22.com/support/contact-us

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We are setting up one groov EPIC now, and will be purchasing another one within the month.
Sounds like a plan, I will contact support for an OPC-UA server to point to groov View and read/write.

Ignition Edge is confusing so I want to make this clear for other reader. Ignition Edge provides communication driver on the down link to talk to shop floor devices and on the uplink, it provides OPC-UA that ONLY groov EPIC can communicate internally. No external OPC-UA client, can read data from Ignition EDGE. ONLY external Full Ignition software can read from Ignition Edge.

That being said, I might be wrong on previous post, perhaps groov can act as an OPC client and can read from any OPC-UA server.

Thank you Jonathan.

Yeah, we’ve supported OPC-UA since groov View version 2.0, released almost 6 years ago now. That’s how we communicate with Ignition Edge; there’s nothing in groov View that even knows Edge is there by default. You have to connect it manually.

Actually it is accurate. groov EPIC (refering to PAC control at least) does not support OPC-UA. Which means groov EPIC cannot ACT as OPC-UA server or client. While in groov View, you can actually add a remote OPC-UA server but data is only available in groov View (Not PAC Control).

groov EPIC being an OPC-UA Client:
If however you want to get data from a remote OPC-UA server into PAC Control. You need to use Node-Red OPC-UA node.

groov EPIC being an OPC-UA Server:
I believe node-red can do this. But I have not tried.