OPC Device Support |
last Modified: by winkler
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• Author: Winkler, Kuner
The OPC device driver provides direct access for EPICS records to items located on an OPC server. It has the following features:
• Data conversion for all integer and float data types.
• Out-records become bidirectional In/Out-records. The EPICS Out-record will be updated if the OPC item is written by another device (e.g. PLC).
• Support for the following record types:
• The data conversion capabilities of the binary records (bi, bo, mbbi, mbbo, mbbiDirect, mbboDirect) are supported with two dtypes "opc" and "opcRaw" as described in the Record Reference Manual for the "Soft Channel" and "Raw Soft Channel" types.
• Timestamp is generated by OPC server or EPICS (source is determined by the record's TSE field).
• OPC quality is mapped to record's STAT/SEVR fields.
• Setup the OPC client with special features:
• Available console commands for debugging purposes:
• The windows installable will install these files (full installation):
C:\Program Files\OpcIocShell\
copyright_en.txt
readme.html
unins000.dat
unins000.exe
bin\
asHost.dll
asIoc.dll
ca.dll
ca_test.dll
caget.exe
cainfo.exe
camonitor.exe
caput.exe
caRepeater.exe
cas.dll
Com.dll
dbIoc.dll
dbStaticHost.dll
dbStaticIoc.dll
dbtoolsIoc.dll
gdd.dll
iocLogServer.exe
iocsh.dll
miscIoc.dll
opcIocShell.exe
opcSupport.dll
recIoc.dll
registryIoc.dll
rsrvIoc.dll
SOCltad.DLL
SOCmnad.DLL
SODaCad.DLL
softDevIoc.dll
testDevIoc.dll
dbd\
opcIoc.dbd
demo\
DemoRecord1.db
DemoRecord2.db
st.cmd
startDemo.bat
src\
res\
icon3.ico
OpcIocShell.ico
uninstall.ico
ait.h
Checksum.cpp
Checksum.h
devOpc.c
devOpc.h
drvOpc.cpp
drvOpc.h
errDbg.c
installationNotes.html
iocShellMain.cpp
logging.c
Opc.cpp
Opc.h
opcApp.rc
opcApp.sln
opcApp.vcproj
opcSupport.dbd
opcSupport.sln
opcSupport.vcproj
opcToEpics.h
recProp.h
resource.h
softing.h
The opcIocShell_3_8_0_0.exe will install the compiled iocShell and its .dll's in a proper way.
The service opcEnum (needed for discovering of OPC servers) will be installed too.
For recompilation of the opcIocShell the OPC Toolkit from Softing is neccessary. We use OPC Toolkit version 3.01.
To run the demo example, OPC simulator should be installed. It's included in the setup.
Create a report of all records that use OPC device support. Output format:
epicsName, Record Type, Dtype, opcName, opcFullName
• Syntax:
opcIor
opcDbg <n> [Filter]
Argument n may be hexadecimal OR decimal value
0x00000001 Show version of opc device driver
0x00000002 Show read values
0x00000004 Show write values
0x00000008 Show bad values
0x00000010 Show OPC init
0x00000020 Show all OPC variables
0x00000040 Show OPC-EPICS-MAPPING
0x00000080 Show template processing
0x00000100 Show OPC-group refreshing
0x00000200 undefined
0x00000400 undefined
0x00000800 undefined
0x00001000 undefined
0x00002000 Show only ai(r) variables
0x00004000 Show only aai variables
0x00008000 Show only bi(r) variables
0x00010000 Show only longin variables
0x00020000 Show only mbbi(r) variables
0x00040000 Show only mbbiDirect(r) variables
0x00080000 Show only stringin variables
0x00100000 Show only eventval variables
0x00200000 Show only histogramval variables
0x00300000 Show only ao(r) variables
0x00800000 Show only aao variables
0x01000000 Show only bo(r) variables
0x02000000 Show only longout variables
0x04000000 Show only mbbo(r) variables
0x08000000 Show only mbboDirect(r) variables
0x10000000 Show only stringout variables
0x20000000 Show only waveformval variables
0x40000000 Colored output
0x80000000 undefined
0xFFFFFFFF
OR -1 Show available local OPC servers
and browse connected OPC servers for available OPC-items
0xFFFFFFFE
OR -2 Checks OPC variables whether being invalid
and offer to refresh variables or to restart OPC-server
Optional parameter Filter is a substring to filter PV names
asWriteLog <n>
* n=0 logging disabled
* n=1 console output
* n=2 iocLog output
* n=3 console+iocLoc output
There is a special way to add groups and items to an OPC server. The st.cmd file is more than the commands of the iocShell. It is also parsed by the opc interface routine! The idea is to have one file to setup the iocShell and also the opcClient. See the example:
• Example : of an st.cmd that shows the OPC client setup:
iocShell_registerRecordDeviceDriver(pdbbase)
opcSetNames("../names.txt")
opcSetServer("localhost","MMIOPC.Simulator")
opcSetGroup("myGroup1","100")
dbLoadRecords("./DemoRecord1.db")
opcSetGroup("myGroup2","200")
dbLoadRecords("./DemoRecord2.db")
iocShell_registerRecordDeviceDriver(pdbbase)
iocInit()
Used only in st.cmd, not from the command line. It configures iocShell for connecting to OPC server.
It's possible to connect iocShell to miscellaneous OPC servers.
• Syntax:
opcSetServer("hostName", "serverName")
• Parameters:
Used only in st.cmd, not from the command line. It creates a new OPC item group at current OPC server. It's possible to create miscellaneous groups with several update rates at same server. According to the OPC "Data Access" specification it is mandatory to define at least one group.
• Syntax:
opcSetGroup("groupName","n_scanRate")
• Parameters:
Set refresh-cycle in ms for last defined Group. This forces a read from OPC server for all OPC items in appropriate group.
• Syntax:
opcSetGroup("n_refreshRate")
• Parameters:
Used only in st.cmd, not from the command line. It sets the file for name mapping.
The problem is that the record's INP or OUT fields have a limited length for the name of the OPC item. On the other hand, OPC servers can have huge name lengths for those items. So a map file may be defined to map the long OPC server names to short names suited for the record's link field.
The map file format is:
# allowed are comments and lines like this with leading spaces: epicsName = opcName
# don't forget a blank line at end of file
• Syntax:
opcSetNames("fileName")
• Parameters:
This example shows how to set up an IOC
# debug mode to show OPC initialisation
# opcDbg("0x010")
# Make sure that the dbd contains the lines for "opc" and "opcRaw"
dbLoadDatabase("./iocShell.dbd",0,0)
iocShell_registerRecordDeviceDriver(pdbbase)
# following command initialise logger for channel access writes
# iocLogInit()
# following command sets file of access security rules (also for channel access writes)
# asSetFilename("./asFile.asf")
# Name mapping is not required here
# opcSetNames("../names.txt")
#
# This example uses an OPC server simulator at local host
opcSetServer("localhost","MMIOPC.Simulator")
# group1, scanning every 200 milliseconds
opcSetGroup("myGroup1","200")
dbLoadRecords("./DemoRecord1.db")
#
# group2, scanning every 100 milliseconds
opcSetGroup("myGroup2","100")
dbLoadRecords("./DemoRecord2.db")
#
iocInit()
# following command starts logger for channel access writes (console+iocLoc output)
# asWriteLog(3)
• In-records
The device support accepts all but "Passive". Due to the update facilities of the OPC group it is not reasonable to define a scan rate faster than the update rate of the group. To get the same scan rate for the record set SCAN="I/O Intr". To allow a slower than the update rate (for whatever reason) the fixed scan rates are supported: SCAN=".1 second" to SCAN="10 second".
• Out-records
As mentioned before out-records are now bidirectional in/out-records. They will be updated to the new value if it is changed on the OPC server by any other way (e.g. the PLC or another OPC client).
For out-records the SCAN field is ignored by the device support and should be set to "Passive". Nevertheless, if the OPC server gets a new value for the OPC item the record will be processed to update the value, send monitors, check for limits, set severities and process forward links.
Writing to the hardware from two sides (EPICS and the hardware covered by the OPC server) at the same time can cause problems.
For values that are frequently written by the PLC a write by the EPICS record will be overwritten in the opc-server by the PLC before it is sent to the PLC from the opc-server. In this case a caput will not be recognized by the PLC!
• This is a behaviour due to the opc-server and PLC, no bug in the EPICS device support.
Also an EPICS write that follows immediately after a PLC write (very short time), may be discarded by the device support.
There are two types available: DTYP="opc" for all records and the DTYP="opcRaw" for the binary records: bi, mbbo, mbbi, mbboDirect and mbbiDirect. The behaviour of the record is listed below and is according to the desccription of the raw data types in the Record Reference Manual.
For the analog records ai and ao the LINR field determines the data conversion.
| Record | DTYP | Conversion | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ai | opc | no conversion: LINR="NO CONVERSION" (record default) | ||
| ao | opc | no conversion: LINR="NO CONVERSION" (record default) | ||
| bi | opc | no conversion, VAL may be any value | ||
| bi | opcRaw | conversion: RVAL=0 -> VAL=0, RVAL>0 -> VAL=1 | ||
| bo | opc | conversion: VAL=0 -> RVAL=0, VAL>0 -> RVAL=1 send RVAL to the hardware | ||
| mbbi | opc | for VAL=0..15 record is set to the according state. NOBT, SHFT ignored | ||
| mbbi | opcRaw | if RVAL=xxVL record is set to state xxST. NOBT, SHFT processed | ||
| mbbo | opc | ? | ||
| mbbo | opcRaw | ? further experimets will give new and exciting information, | ||
| mbbiDirect | opc | ? what this records does! See next version. | ||
| mbbiDirect | opcRaw | ? mbboDirect | opc | ? |
| longin | opc | no conversion | ||
| longout | opc | no conversion | ||
| stringin | opc | no conversion stringout | opc | no conversion |
| waveform | opc | no conversion |
The multibit records (mbbo, mbbi, mbboDirect and mbbiDirect) have the fields NOBT and SHFT to select a special part of the 16 bit data input. This is also supported by the device support.
It is possible to choose the timestamp source. Default is the EPICS timestamp, but if the field TSE="-2" the timestamp of the OPC item will be used.
If you run opcIocShell.exe at a hyperthreaded system, application dies after some hours with any system warning.
Solution: append /ONECPU in your boot.ini at [operating systems]
If there are more than ca. 1800 PVs running on an iocShell following occures:
It seams to be a problem of the Windows task priorities.
see section "Record scanning" - Out Records