Example of the OPC A&E server

This page lists once more all steps for the configuration of the OPC A&E server of WinCC OA. The single steps are divided into five groups:

  1. Create the data points with alert handling which the server then provides as items

  2. Configuration of the server (The configuration was already described in detail on the page Configuration of the OPC A&E server where the single panels are described).

  3. Configuration of the data point groups (Details can be found on the page Configuration of the OPC A&E server)

  4. Entry in the config file

  5. Start the server

Following steps have to be executed in order to establish a communication between the WinCC OA OPC A&E server and an arbitrary OPC A&E client. The data point names and texts used here should be understood as an example and can be replaced via arbitrary other names:

Create data points with alert handling

  • Create a data point type PVLEVEL4 as "float".

  • Create a master data point _mp_PVLEVEL4.

  • Create a alert handling for the master data point with 5 alert ranges:

    Figure 1. Alert handling for the master data point _mp_PVLEVEL4

  • Create the data points Level1 and Level2 as instances of the master data point _mp_PVLEVEL4.

  • Create a data point type Alert as "bool"

  • Create a master data point _mp_Alert.

  • Create an alert handling for the master data point:

    Figure 2. Alert handling for the master data point _mp_Alert

  • Create the data points Alert1 and Alert2 as instances of the master data point _mp_Alert.

The message generated by the OPC A&E server is sent to WinCC OA together with the other alarm information and is written into the alert comment config. Thus, you can see what the server sent.

Configuration of the server

  • Definition of the Event CategoryAlarmLevel of type Conditional.

  • Definition of the Condition PVLEVEL4 in the Event CategoryAlarmLevel via choosing the master data point _mp_PVLEVEL4.

  • The name of the Sub ConditionLOLO for PVLEVEL4 is changed to lower alert limit.

  • Definition of the Event CategoryAlert of type simple.

  • Configuration of the Simple Events via selection of the master data point _mp_Alert.

Configuration of the data point groups

  • Choose the data points Level1 and Level2 for the data point group OPC_AE_PVLEVEL4.

  • Choose the data points Alert1 and Alert2 for the data point group OPC_AE_Simple.

  • Call the function Check in the data point group OPC_AE.

Entry in the config file

  • The following entry has to be defined for the WinCC OA OPC A&E Server in the config file of the project. The entry is added to the [opcaesrv] section.

[opcaesrv]

server = "AEServer1"

Start the server

  • Start the WinCC OA OPC A&E Server. The manager WCCOAopcsrvAE is used for this purpose. The manager has to be added to the manager list of the console and the process has to be started.

  • An OPC A&E client (for example, The Visual OPC Test Tracer) can connect to the server. The following server items are shown:

  • If an alert is triggered for the data point Level1 in WinCC OA, it is shown in the Visual OPC Test Tracer with the status "ACTIVE, UNACKED, ENABLED". Also a triggered alert of the Alert1 is shown but cannot be acknowledged since this is a simple event.