New announcements include an updated visualization package from ECG, a new OPC server version from Kepware, an OPC firewall from Phoenix Contact, a new HMI/SCADA from Progea, and Windows 10 support from both Softing and Unified Automation. Click on the headlines below for more information.
New Version of Visualization Client
Engineering Consultants Group is now introducing the latest Glance™ Version 2.1.13. Glance is a real-time graphical visualization client for OPC DA/HDA and OSIsoft PI.
New Version of OPC Server
Kepware Technologies announced the release of KEPServerEX version 5.18. Key enhancements offer additional device connectivity and an improved user experience for customers in multiple vertical industries, including manufacturing, oil & gas, and power & utilities. “Our commitment to addressing customers’ needs prompted important usability and feature enhancements—including real-time tag edits and expanded support for ABB’s measurement and monitoring technologies” said Tony Paine, CEO, Kepware.
Secure firewall for OPC Classic
A new license for Phoenix Contact’s FL mGuard security devices can protect OPC Classic applications. While traditional firewalls do not offer protection for this protocol, users of mGuard firmware version 8.1 and beyond can now upgrade to the OPC inspector license. The OPC inspector firmware looks into the transmitted data packets, analyzing and modifying them as necessary. The OPC inspector dynamically creates firewall rules matching the ports and directions used by OPC traffic. It identifies and blocks all non-OPC traffic. It also permits the use of network address translation (NAT) procedures, such as masquerading or 1:1 NAT routing.
New HMI / SCADA Based on OPC UA
Progea is proud to announce AutomationPlatform.NExT, a software architecture designed for building the foundations of modern automation software.The Automation Platform.NExT Client-Server has been designed by Progea to guarantee maximum robustness, openness and interoperability, security, and performance. It is for these reasons that the platform’s Information Model is totally based on and integrated with OPC UA. The key framework components include the Data Server (I/O Server) and the HMI Client (Movicon.NExT), which communicate by means of the address space in the OPC UA data model to enable openness and independence.
OPC Suite supports Windows 10
Softing Industrial Automation GmbH announced the release of the software update 4.04 of its dataFEED OPC Suite. The update includes support for Microsoft’s Windows 10 operating system. For license holders of the suite who are planning to migrate to Windows 10, the update is free of charge. Softing‘s dataFEED OPC Suite combines OPC Server and OPC Middleware functionality into one compact software solution. The integrated OPC UA Server allows the simple integration of legacy and new controllers into “Industrie 4.0” solutions.
Modern Process Data Management
Softing announces the release of a new version of its proven application gateway echocollect which offers direct connectivity between field level machines and databases or networks that are using the OPC UA protocol. The simplified symbols-import from a Siemens TIA Portal project accelerates the configuration effort and a redundant Oracle database connectivity provides high security data management. In addition, the safety standards for the data exchange via OPC UA have been enhanced.
Server OPC UA Certified
Software Toolbox is proud to announce that OmniServer has passed the official OPC Foundation lab certification process for the OPC UA interface. Find out how beneficial OPC UA from your remote OPC UA capable client applications can be when using OmniServer to collect data from your zoo of non-standard devices.
Deterministic Ethernet Starter Kit
TTTech, has announced the launch of its DE-Starter Kit supporting IEEE TSN (Time-Sensitive Networking), for the evaluation of industrial applications over standard real-time Ethernet. The starter kit offers an out-of-the-box set up which for the first time allows users to test the performance of OPC UA and PROFINET components over a TSN network. Included in the kit are TSN-enabled switches from TTTech, nodes with OPC UA, and pre-loaded configurations.
OPC UA running on Windows 10 IoT Core
Unified Automation‘s OPC UA SDKs are ready to run on the new operating system Windows 10 IoT Core for the Raspberry PI 2 which has been released by Microsoft. On Windows 10 (Desktop), Unified Automation OPC UA SDKs are simply running out of the box, because here the Win32 API is fully supported. However, a patch will be provided with the next release versions to adapt the ANSI C and the C++ based Unified Automation OPC UA SDK to Win10 IoT Core. Furthermore, a runtime limited evaluation edition for Windows 10 IoT Core is planned to make the OPC UA SDKs available on Raspberry PI 2.
New OPC UA Client Features
The IBH Link from IBHsoftec now contains an OPC UA client. The IBH Link UA supports Client and Server functions simultaneously. This allows data exchange between different OPC UA Servers. For example control systems and other equipment with OPC UA servers from different manufacturers can exchange data with each other. The configuration of the client functions can be made using a standard web browser.