Using Matrikon OPC Explorer to connect to a Wonderware DA Server

Description

Using Matrikon OPC Explorer to connect to a Wonderware DA Server

Problem Statement

Matrikon OPC Explorer is a free product that allows you to connect to and test various OPC Servers. It can be used to connect to any Wonderware DA Server including FSGateway. This technote will walk through the process of creating the connection and testing the server.

Solution Details

Although Matrikon OPC Explorer can be used to test any DA Server, this technote will walkthrough testing communication to FSGateway.

Step 1: Launch the Matrikon OPC Explorer and select the desired DA Server. In this case it is FSGateway.

Step 2: Click the Connect button under OPC Server Connection Options

Step 3: Click the Add Tags button under OPC Server Connection Options

Step 4: Enter the desired tags that you wish to see and click the button in the picture below. The format for this should be as below where topic is the device group name in the DA Server and tagname is the tag you wish to test:

Topic.Tagname

In the example above, Topic1 is the name of the device group in the DA Server and Testtag1 is the name of the item I am testing.

Step 5: From the file menu, choose validate tags. This should put a green check mark beside each item if the syntax is correct. This can also be done by clicking a blank space in the tag area and choosing validate tags.

Step 6: From the file menu, choose Update and return.

Step 7: You should now see all of your tags listed with a value, quality, and timestamp. These values can help you determine whether your DA Server is getting good values or not.