Third Party OPC Servers

Ignition has a built-in OPC UA server that includes all of the drivers in this section, but if your devices aren't listed here, there is another way to connect to them. Ignition can quickly and easily connect to third party OPC servers via OPC UA or OPC DA (using the OPC COM module) for devices that do not have a supported driver. This opens up the possibilities to connect Ignition to any device with servers like Kepware, Matricon, etc. With over 100 driver suites each, you are sure to be able to connect anything to Ignition.

OPC UA

OPC UA is the new Unified Architecture for connecting to OPC devices. Probably the best feature of this new standard is that it can be used on any OS, it is not tied to Microsoft like its predecessor is. Many companies make an OPC UA server, and between them grant access to hundreds of driver suites, giving you access to thousands of available devices through Ethernet, serial, and other types of communication. If Ignition doesn't have it already, you can still get your data in.

Connecting to an OPC-UA server is simple (locally or remote), but because of the increased security, you need access to both the OPC server and Ignition to complete the setup. For step-by-step instructions to connect to a Kepware OPC server, see Connecting to Kepware OPC UA. All other OPC UA servers will have extremely similar connection steps.

note

While Ignition can connect to third-party OPC UA servers, these servers must include support for at least OPC UA 1.03 datatype dictionaries in order to read structured values.

OPC COM (DA)

OPC COM (often called OPC-DA) has been the way to connect to OPC devices for many years, but the world has since out-grown it with the creation of OPC-UA. It relies on the .NET framework and because of this is restricted to Microsoft operating systems. There is no way to install an OPC COM server on Mac or Linux. There are many still in use today so it cannot be abandoned completely yet, but Ignition has an OPC COM module to connect to them.

OPC COM servers are notoriously difficult to connect to, especially if you want to connect to one on a remote server. If you need to do so, using Ignition's OPC COM Tunneller module is highly preferred over setting up a Remote COM connection.