1. Exploring the New Features of OPC Systems.NET
UDP Broadcast/Receive
OPC Excel.NET
Renee Sikes
Applications Engineer
Phone: +1 (704)

2. Agenda We’ll get here quickly! Introduce OPC Systems.NET
Introduce new features
UDP Broadcast and Receive
OPC Excel.NET
Live Demo – Connecting to Excel
Summary
Questions & Answers
We’ll get here quickly!
Here’s the agenda for today. We’ll start-out discussing why people are interested in Web-based HMI’s and why you should consider them if you don’t already have one. Then we’ll briefly discuss the different types of web-development as there many methods. We’ll then introduce the OPCSystems.NET software development platform and will explore why it is the premier choice for building Web-based HMI’s. We’ll move as quickly as we can to get to the live demo where we’ll actually create a web-based HMI. We’ll then wrap-up with a summary, finishing off by answering your questions.

3. OPC Systems Components
Windows Applications
Controls .NET, Alarm.NET, Trend.NET, Gauge.NET
Web Applications
WebControls.NET, WebAlarm.NET, WebTrend.NET

4. OPC Systems Components
WPF Applications
WPF.NET
Mobile Applications
Mobile.NET
Data Management
Database.NET, Report.NET, Recipe.NET, Client.NET, Route.NET, Excel.NET

5. OPC Systems .NET Benefits
OPC Systems .NET provides these benefits:
Central “always-on” tag repository = faster performance
Tag data can come from OPC DA and/or Databases, including Excel
Multi-Threaded for faster, and more Reliable operations
Buffers data, eliminating data-loss for short outages as well as maximizing the performance of your web-link
Modular, components available separately or as a suite
Affordable, not as expensive as you might think
OPC Self-Certified, for assurance in quality
NO MORE DCOM HEADACHES
Alright, so we now know what the point of this system is, so lets quickly gain an understanding of some of the benefits in the system, the very things that you can’t see, hear, smell or touch…
Scalability: you know you need it! The system you implement today is likely going to grow tomorrow, and when those needs arise, you’ll need a system/platform that will give you that flexibility. Well, it’s in there and we’ll see what this means in just a moment.
Multi-threaded: concurrent processing enables the software to be more responsive and utilize your computing power more efficiently. Likewise, put this system on a multi-processor PC and watch the performance increase.
Buffers data: Zero data-loss is possible even with temporary network outages. Obviously this is a big deal, but you’ll see what this means in just a moment.
Modular: Means you can buy just what you need, to keep costs down, or maximize on your investment and savings and go with the entire suite.
Affordable: You’re about to see that there’s a lot to this system, but you’ll be surprised at how affordable and cost-effective this solution is.
OPC Self-Certified: This is a big-deal. If you use OPC software, it should be Self-Tested by a minimum, if not, don’t use it. This is a seal of quality, meaning that the software has been to OPC Interoperability Workshops where it has been tested against other vendors software, but also tested by the OPC Foundation’s error injection server that passes bad and invalid information to the client to ensure that it gracefully handles and recovers from problematic situations.
Oh, what’s that bottom bullet? Oh yeah, no more DCOM headaches… why? Because OPCSystems.NET is based on .NET technology and consequently uses .NET Remoting instead – which is the platform that Microsoft wanted us to migrate towards so that DCOM could die a peaceful death.

6. OPC Systems .NET Service (Tag Repository)
How it works…
Tag repository stores Data, and some history
Data can come from OPC Servers
OPC Connection is always ON eliminating connectivity overhead
Applications see the data when it opens
.Net Remoting transfers the data WITHOUT DCOM
.Net Remoting
OPC Systems .NET Service (Tag Repository)
Data Source
OPC Server
PLC
DCS
Other

7. OPC Systems .NET Service (Tag Repository)
How it works…
Application requests an “update” of the items/tags it needs.
OPC Systems .NET Server responds with values that have changed:
If value remains same, empty data-set returned
If 1-value changed, that value is returned
If the value changed multiple times, all updates sent
.Net Remoting
OPC Systems .NET Service (Tag Repository)
Data Source
OPC Server
PLC
DCS
Other

8. OPC Systems .NET Service (Tag Repository)
Tolerance
OPC Systems .NET Service (Tag Repository)
Client Application
Queue
Local
Network
Internet
Tag Repository individually “caches” data to each client
If a client goes temporarily offline, it will “catch-up” on the next update.
Applies to ALL OPC Systems .NET Clients (data logging, alarms, WinForms, WebForms etc.)

9. UDP Broadcast and Receive
Broadcast all OPC Systems tag values to specified UDP clients
Receive UDP broadcast messages of tag values from remote OPC Systems services
Built-in security
Value transfer is one-way
Easy configuration

10. OPC Excel.NET Read and Write data in Excel
Unlimited remote Excel connections to OPC Systems service without NetDDE
Uses RTD function to communicate
Combine with other OPC Systems features to get data from Excel to Visual Studio applications, web applications, data bases, reports, etc.

11. OPC Excel.NET
Free configuration utility to help you properly create formulas to read/write tags, or read timestamps
Confirmation of data exchange for added reliability
Connect to Excel 2003, 2007, and 2010

12. Live Demo UDP Broadcast/Receive Demonstrate Excel worksheet
Set up UDP Broadcast on VPC
Set up UDP receive on host
Demonstrate Excel worksheet
Read a tag with its timestamp
Write tags
View Security Settings

13. Contact us for pricing for higher tag counts
Affordable
Tag Counts
1 Feature
3 Features
5 Features
All 15 Features
100 Tags
$195
$495
$735
$995
250 Tags
$295
$745
$1,115
$1,495
500 Tags
$395
$1,995
1,000 Tags
$1,245
$1,865
$2,995
2,500 Tags
$795
$4,995
*Support and Maintenance contracts are available for 20% of the total license cost
Contact us for pricing for higher tag counts
No OPC Server Connection or Client Connection Counts
No Text File or Database Connection Counts
Code-less development tools are
Runtime-free
Fully documented, lots of examples
SmartClient Technology ready

14. Other Features Available
Data Logging (text files and databases)
Report generation
Alarm logging and notification
Windows Forms development tools
Recipe management

15. Summary Convenience: Quickly and easily build & deploy HMIs
Scalable Framework: allowing your system to grow
Reliable: OPC Self-Certified, plus Buffering
Alerting: Data Logging, Reporting, Alarming & Notifications
Open: API provides interface for your apps to control
Affordable: modular, buy what you need.
So to wrap-up:
We’ve seen what convenience means in terms of rapid development and easy deployment means
We understand some of the ways in which you can scale-up your system
We can trust the software because of its OPC Self Certified status, and also trust in the communications infrastructure which can eliminate data-loss for short network outages.
You’ve got the alerting capabilities for alarms and reports.
You’ve got an open API for those developers out there that want and/or need to build custom software to further enhance/extend their overall systems.
And it’s affordable folks. Go out there and add-up the cost of equivalent tools giving this functionality – that’s assuming that you don’t have to re-invent parts of the system yourself.

16. More Information www.softwaretoolbox.com/opcsystems
… get through to an expert!
Questions:
Renee Sikes:
Technical Support:
Tel: +1 (704)
Web:
So at this point, we have finished the Presentation and now I’d like to open-up the phones for Questions and Answers.