TN ITME119 Reading InTouch Machine Edition Tags with OI Gateway or FSGateway

Description

This article from InSource shows how to connect to InTouch Machine Edition (ITME) using either OI Gateway or FSGateway by utilizing the built in OPC Server in ITME.

• Author: Dillon Perera
• Published: 12/19/17
• Applies to: InTouch Machine Edition 8.1; OI Gateway 2

Details

1. Open the Wonderware Systems Management Console and expand the Operations Integration Server Manager until you can see the Configuration branch of the OI.Gateway server.
   
2. Left click on Configuration so that it is highlighted, and then right click to bring up the options to add connections. Select the “Add OPC Connection” option. 
   This new branch can be named anything you want, but it is helpful to keep it short but meaningful. The name of this branch will be used at the end for part of the Topic/DeviceGroup name. In this example I have named mine ITME.
   
3. Once you click on the new branch, you will see settings to configure on the right hand side of the Systems Management Console.
   
   1. Server Node: This is the PC where InTouch Machine Edition is installed. Ideally you are installing this on the same computer, so you can either enter the computers name, IP Address, or “localhost”.
   2. Server Name: This is the name of the OPC Server we are trying to connect to. You can click the ellipsis button to browse what OPC Servers exist on your PC. The one we want to select is Studio.Scada.OPC.
   3. Reconnect Attempts: This sets the number of times to attempt to reconnect to InTouch Machine Edition’s OPC Server if it isn’t found the first time. In this example it is set to “-1” meaning to try indefinitely. Please consult your version of OI Gateway/FSGateway to confirm this setting, as different versions have used both 0 or -1 to mean infinite retry attempts.
4. On the left of the Systems Management Console, left click on the ITME branch to ensure it is selected, and then right click to bring up the options. Select the option to “Add OPCGroup Connection”. In my example I have named it “OPCServer”. Note that the Device Group name that will be created will be the names of the “OPC Connection Name” + _ + “OPC Group Name”. So for this example, mine is displayed as “ITME_OPCServer”.
    
5. There should not be a need to do any additional configuration, however it may be beneficial to click the Browse OPC Items button to confirm communication with InTouch Machine Edition is working, and that your tags are visible. Once you are satisfied, you can right click on the server branch (OI.Gateway) and activate.