Version: 8.3 Beta 🚧

Omron FINS Driver

Ignition supports Omron FINS devices. This driver supports both UDP and TCP transport protocols.

Connect to an Omron FINS Device via TCP

This driver requires the OPC UA module to be installed and enabled. If the module is missing or disabled, the device will fault with a “Missing Dependency” error on the Platform > System > Modules page.

On the Gateway, go to Connections > Devices > Connections.
Click Create Device Connection +.
Select Omron FINS/TCP and click Next.
On the Configure Device screen, enter the required fields:
- Name: The desired name for the device (e.g., FINSTCP)
- Hostname: The IP address of the PLC (e.g., 74.125.224.72)
Click Create Device Connection.

The device will be listed now on the Connections page. The status will initially show Disconnected, but will move to a Connected state.

Omron FINS/TCP Settings

General

Name	Description
Name	A user-defined name for the device. This name appears in OPC item paths and the Devices list. Name must begin with an underscore or a letter, and cannot include special characters.
Description	Optional description to help identify the device.
Enabled	When selected, the device is active and available for use.

Connectivity

Name	Description
Hostname	The hostname or IP Address of the device.
Port	The port your Omron device is listening on. The default is 9600.
Local Address	Address of network adapter to connect from.
Timeout	The request timeout, specified in milliseconds. The default is 2,000.

FINS Settings

Name	Description	Valid Value
FINS Source Network	The address number of the source network (the Ignition Gateway).	Valid value is an integer between 0 and 127. The default setting is 0.
FINS Source Node	The number of the source node (the Ignition Gateway), typically the last octet of the IP address.	Valid value in an integer between 0 and 254. The default setting is 0.
FINS Source Unit	The unit number of the source device (the Ignition Gateway).	Valid value is an integer between 0 and 255. The default setting is 0.
FINS Destination Network	The address number of the destination network (the FINS device).	Valid value is an integer between 0 and 127. The default setting is 0.
FINS Destination Node	The number of the destination node (the FINS device), typically the last octet of the IP address and set via dials on the front of the device.	Valid value in an integer between 0 and 254. The default setting is 0.
FINS Destination Unit	The unit number of the destination device (the FINS device).	Valid value is an integer between 0 and 255. The default setting is 0.

Request Optimization

Name	Description
Concurrent Requests	The number of requests that Ignition will try to send to the device at the same time. Increasing this number can sometimes help with your request throughput, however increasing this too much can overwhelm the device and hurt communications with the device.
Max Request Size	The maximum size of a request in bytes.
Max Gap Size	The maximum address “gap” to span when optimizing requests to contiguous address locations.
Write Priority Ratio	The number of write requests to execute for every read request, when an abundance of both are queued for execution.

Connect to an Omron FINS Device via UDP

On the Gateway, go to Connections > Devices > Connections.
Click Create Device Connection +.
Select Omron FINS/UDP and click Next.
On the Configure Device screen, enter the required fields:
- Name: The desired name for the device (e.g., FINSUDP)
- Bind Address: The hostname or IP address of the Gateway (e.g., 74.125.224.10)
- Remote Address: The hostname or IP address of the device(e.g., 74.125.224.72)
- FINS Source Node: The number of the source node (the Ignition Gateway), typically the last octet of the IP address (e.g., 10)
- FINS Destination Node: The number of the destination node (the FINS device), typically the last octet of the IP address and set via dials on the front of the device (e.g., 72)
- FINS Destination Unit: The unit number of the destination device (the FINS device)
Click Create Device Connection.

The device will be listed now on the Connections page. The status will initially show Disconnected, but will move to a Connected state.

Omron FINS/UDP Settings

General

Name	Description
Name	A user-defined name for the device. This name appears in OPC item paths and the Devices list. Name must begin with an underscore or a letter, and cannot include special characters.
Description	Optional description to help identify the device.
Enabled	When selected, the device is active and available for use.

Connectivity

Name	Description
Bind Address	The hostname or IP address of the Gateway
Bind Port	The port you wish to create a UDP connection on for the Gateway. The default is 9600.
Remote Address	The hostname or IP address of the device.
Remote Port	The port your Omron device is listening on. The default is 9600.
Timeout	The request timeout, specified in milliseconds. The default is 2,000.

FINS Settings

Name	Description	Valid Value
FINS Source Network	The address number of the source network (the Ignition Gateway).	Valid value is an integer between 0 and 127. The default setting is 0.
FINS Source Node	The number of the source node (the Ignition Gateway), typically the last octet of the IP address.	Valid value in an integer between 0 and 254. The default setting is 0.
FINS Source Unit	The unit number of the source device (the Ignition Gateway).	Valid value is an integer between 0 and 255. The default setting is 0.
FINS Destination Network	The address number of the destination network (the FINS device).	Valid value is an integer between 0 and 127. The default setting is 0.
FINS Destination Node	The number of the destination node (the FINS device), typically the last octet of the IP address and set via dials on the front of the device.	Valid value is an integer between 0 and 254. The default setting is 0.
FINS Destination Unit	The unit number of the destination device (the FINS device).	Valid value is an integer between 0 and 255. The default setting is 0.

Request Optimization

Name	Description
Concurrent Requests	The number of requests that Ignition will try to send to the device at the same time. Increasing this number can sometimes help with your request throughput, however increasing this too much can overwhelm the device and hurt communications with the device.
Max Request Size	The maximum size of a request in bytes.
Max Gap Size	The maximum address “gap” to span when optimizing requests to contiguous address locations.
Write Priority Ratio	The number of write requests to execute for every read request, when an abundance of both are queued for execution.

Import Addresses

There is a user interface in the Gateway to create import addresses. After import, you'll be able to browse the tags in the Designer.

On the Gateway, go to Connections > Devices > Connections.
On the Device Connections page, click the three dots menu next to the Omron FINS device and select Addresses.
In the pop out panel, click the Import Configuration File button and upload the addresses from a CSV, TSV, or CXR file.
After uploading a configuration file, click Import.
The tags and their values will be displayed. Click Save Configuration.
Once any changes are saved, you can view the tags in the Connected Devices window of the Designer.

Addressing

You also have the option to manually address tags via an Ignition OPC tag in the Ignition Designer. See Ignition OPC UA Server Node Configuration for more information.

Data Areas

Area	Ignition Code	Omron Symbol Code	Native Size
CIO Area	CIO		Int16/UInt16
Work Area	WR or W	W	Int16/UInt16
Holding Bit Area	HR or H	H	Int16/UInt16
Auxiliary Bit Area	AR or A	A	Int16/UInt16
Timer Area	TIM or T	T	Int16/UInt16 or Bool
Counter Area	CNT or C	C	Int16/UInt16 or Bool
Index Register Area	IR	IR	Int32/UInt32
Data Register Area	DR	DR	Int16/UInt16
DM area	DM or D	D	Int16/UInt16
EM area	EM or Exx	E	Int16/UInt16

EM Area

Use EM for the current bank, or Exx for bank xx, where xx is 2 hex digits.

note

Valid banks are E00 through E18 (hex), totaling 25 banks.

Data Types

Bit
Bool
Int16
Int32
Int64
UInt16
UInt32
Float
Double
String
BCD16
BCD32

Data Type Modifiers

Modifier	Order
@BE	Big Endian Byte Order (default when not specified)
@LE	Little Endian Byte Order
@HL	High-Low Word Order
@LH	Low-High Word Order (default when not specified)

Examples

Syntax Example

note

Items in curly brackets {} are optional.

Below is an example OPC Item path, representing how to manually specify an address in the device.

ns=1;s=[DeviceName]Area{<DataType>}Offset{.Bit}

When typing Addresses in using the Device's Address page on the gateway, the syntax looks like the following:

Area{<DataType>}Offset{.Bit}

More Examples

Item Path (OPC UA NodeId)	FINS Request
CIO0	An Int16 at offset 0 in CIO area.
CIO<Int32>1	An Int32 at offset 1 in CIO area.
CIO<Int64>3.0	Bit 0 of an Int64 at offset 3 in CIO area.
CIO<Int64@HL>3	An Int64 at offset 3 in CIO area in High-Low word order.
TIM0	Present Value (16-bit) of Timer at offset 0.
TIM<Bool>0	Completion Status (Bool) of Timer at offset 0.
CNT0	Present Value (16-bit) of Counter at offset 0.
CNT<Bool>0	Completion Status (Bool) of Counter at offset 0.
DR0	An Int32 at offset 0 in DR area (32-bit by default).
DR<Int64>0	An Int64 at offset in DR area.
CIO<Int16[3]>0	An Int16 array of size 3 at offset 0 in CIO area.
CIO<Int16[3]>0[1]	Element 1 of an Int16 array of size 3 at offset 0 in CIO area.
CIO<String10>0	String of up to length 10 (string length in bytes) at offset 0 in CIO area.
E001000	An Int16 from EM bank 0 at offset 1000.
E00<Int16>1000	Also an Int16 from EM bank 0 at offset 1000, but with the an explicit DataType to make the address look less confusing.
E001000	An Int16 from EM bank 0 at offset 1000.
TIM0	Present Value (16-bit) of Timer at offset 0.
TIM<Bool>0	Completion Status (Bool) of Timer at offset 0.

Ignition OPC UA Server Node Configuration

You can also create OPC Nodes in Ignition’s OPC UA server manually via a CSV file on the Ignition Gateway itself using the settings in the table below.

Name	Value
File Name	tags.csv
File Location	$ignitionHome/data/opcua/devices/$deviceName
File Format	Comma-separated value file with the following columns: Browse Path Address Description

Example File

Tag1, CIO0, "First tag"
Foo/Tag2, CIO1, "Second tag, in a folder"
Foo/Bar/Tag3, CIO2, "In a couple of folders"

Use quotes on the description when it contains a comma (or whenever you like).

When adding or making changes to this file, a restart of the device is necessary for the changes to be picked up. This is done by editing the device and clicking Save.

Connect to an Omron FINS Device via TCP​

Omron FINS/TCP Settings​

General​

Connectivity​

FINS Settings​

Request Optimization​

Connect to an Omron FINS Device via UDP​

Omron FINS/UDP Settings​

General​

Connectivity​

FINS Settings​

Request Optimization​

Import Addresses​

Addressing​

Data Areas​

EM Area​

Data Types​

Data Type Modifiers​

Examples​

Syntax Example​

More Examples​

Ignition OPC UA Server Node Configuration​

Example File​

Connect to an Omron FINS Device via TCP

Omron FINS/TCP Settings

General

Connectivity

FINS Settings

Request Optimization

Connect to an Omron FINS Device via UDP

Omron FINS/UDP Settings

General

Connectivity

FINS Settings

Request Optimization

Import Addresses

Addressing

Data Areas

EM Area

Data Types

Data Type Modifiers

Examples

Syntax Example

More Examples

Ignition OPC UA Server Node Configuration

Example File