OPC Server tutorials

Are there any tutorials/videos/etc. on setting up an OPC server?

OPC in which product?

Opto OPC of course! :wink:

I found that the step-by-step OPC server manual provided by OPTO works perfectly for a OPTO OPC Server. The server is then easy to set-up with the Browser Configurator…its the OPC set-up on the other end that tends to be more difficult. I have connected to Allen Bradley, Siemens, and Honeywell systems, and I usually have to rely quite heavy on their tech guys (and usually it is new to them, so its always fun).

One thing to remember…they say they are limited to a tag length of 32 characters. It usually ends up being 64, but keep your tags short just in case.

Bill

On the DCOM security side, it is easiest to make sure that the Opto OPC server service and whatever your client service is are using the same username and password. A lot of the time they are set by default to use the local system account, and this will not work. This is changed on the Log On tab of the service properties.

This doesn’t apply to OPC-UA, but Opto’s OPC server doesn’t support that anyways.

I’m thinking of commissioning an OptoOPC Server on one of the PCs running PacDisplay since there are several PCs running pacdisplay, plus a groov box looking at the same controller(s). It’s my understanding this should alleviate com problems and/or speed up communications by offloading coms to a single unit from the controller. This should be pretty simple right?

I am having this issue. OPC server is running, windows 10 Workstation can see it in windows network list, I can even connect with the ProSys OPC Client. But when I am in Opto Display Configurator and I try to set my control engine scanner properties to Remote OPC server…I can not see the computer listed under network. Even when I try to manually type in the server computer.
From what you mentioned here, i should set my client service and the opc server to run under the same account and password? Would my client service be OptoDisplay Runtime?

Thanks!

It’s been a LONG time since I’ve used Opto’s OPC Server, so I don’t remember the exact steps/details. (Opto had a fairly extensive document on this somewhere - but it is from the WinXP days, so some things will be different). From what I can recall the following is the gist of getting this to work:

The account the user logs in with (and runs PAC Display with) will need to match the service account name of the Opto OPC server service login. If this is not possible, then you will need to dive into the DCOM security settings to get things to work (not a lot of fun). This basically involves creating a login on the system OPC server is on with the same login as the workstation user and then giving that user DCOM permission to access the OPC Server. This all assumes non-domain (no Active Directory) computers. If on a domain, the easiest is to have a AD group setup for Opto22, and use that group for the DCOM permissions, and make sure all the Opto22 users and OPC server user are members of that group. (Again, my memory is fuzzy on this)

As far as the server name not showing up: Is your workstation on the same network as the server (no routers between them and not separate VLANs)? Also, verify netbios is running on the workstation (ipconfig /all).

Just running peer to peer workgroup…
I can see the server from the workstation while in windows. I can open up the C drive and see files. I can see the workstation from the server station while in windows, open c drive and see files. Its when i run Opto Display Configurator, I can not see the server in the window to choose the location of the scanner.

As far as Dcom, you are correct. Opto has a detailed step by step config i followed closely (and re-visited 8 or 9 times now). I will try a few more tweeks and then consider reinstalling software.