opc server on compact fieldpoint 2100

[Monkins]

Dear all

I am having a bit of trouble on where to start with setting up OPC tags for the customer to view.  I have a cFP-2100 in machine which is installed at a power station.  It isconnected by ethernet back to a PC in a server room.

All outputs are normally hardwired using an analogue output card to give the values, but this customer has requested I use OPC.

They browse the available OPC servers on the network and find

National Instruments.Variable EngineNational Instruments.Variable Engine.1National Instruments.OPCFieldPointNational Instruments.LookoutOPCServer

Now I can easily change the code to ouput the instruments values to some new shared variables, but how do I go about creating a tag name?

Another question I have the NI devloper suite (NI professional devlopment system) with teh datalogging and supervisory control module 8.2.1 and the labview industrial automation OPC servers 5.1.  But i cant find which disk they are on?  any ideas?

any help would be much appriciated.

regards,

Chris

[Monkins]

UPDATE:

First an apology I dont have the Datalogging and supervisory module.

Secondly I found this:

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/980E37212C98654D862572A5004D2C8C 

Does this mean that i can have a vi running on the industrial rack mounted PC that grabs the values of the shared variables and puts them into another shared variable library (hosted on the PC) and then the power stations PI-OPC tool can find the variables?

If this is so how come the PI system can already see the:

National Instruments.Variable Engine

National Instruments.Variable Engine.1

National Instruments.OPCFieldPoint

National Instruments.LookoutOPCServer

?

thanks, chris  

Message Edited by Monkins on 05-05-2010 09:42 AM

[david.bolt]

Dear Monkins

From a performance standpoint, there is no difference between these two methods when the DataSocket is configured correctly. At run time, accessing the tags will happen at the same rate and with the exact same behavior. To configure the DataSocket connection correctly, ensure that you open and close a connection to your tag only once when reading or writing from it iteratively, as shown in the following screenshot. From an implementation standpoint, there is an important difference between the two methods. The shared variable method uses an OPC client that is built into the shared variable engine. This OPC client is added by the DSC module. In order to bind shared variables to OPC tags, you must have the DSC module installed. The DataSocket method uses a different OPC client built into the DataSocket implementation in LabVIEW. Because DataSockets are a standard part of LabVIEW, you do not need any special software modules to access your OPC tags with this method.

Please see the KB below which describes how to use the OPC server in Labview through using Datasocket.

https://knowledge.ni.com/KnowledgeArticleDetails?id=kA00Z0000019MwxSAE&l=en-US