User manual

Klinkmann Automation SPA Bus Server 3
SPA Server Ver 1.x User Manual Rev 2.3 120XXM23
The OPC is based on Microsoft OLE, COM and DCOM technologies and enables simple
and standardised data interchange between the industrial or office sector and the
production sector. From general point of view many aspects of OPC are similar to DDE,
but main difference is in the implementation by using Microsoft's COM (Component
Object Model) technology. It enables fast exchange with process automation data and
OPC open interface allows access to data from OPC Server in same standard way from
OPC client applications supplied by different developers.
For more information on the basics of OPC, please refer to the OPC Specification. The
OPC Data Access Custom Interface Specification is maintained by OPC Foundation, the
current specification is 2.04 dated September 2000.
The OPC support for SPA Server “OPC & DDE” version is implemented based on
FactorySoft OPC Server Development Toolkit and it conforms to OPC Data Access
Custom Interface Specification 2.04. The SPA Server “OPC & DDE” version is tested for
compliance and is compatible with OPC Foundation OPC Data Access Compliance Test
Tool.
The Suite Link, FastDDE (Version 3) and DDE support for SPA Server “Suite Link &
DDE” version is implemented by Wonderware I/O Server Toolkit ver. 7.0 (060).
The FastDDE (Version 2) and DDE support for SPA Server “OPC & DDE” version is
implemented by Wonderware I/O Server Toolkit ver. 5.0 (008).
Accessing Remote Items via the SPA Server
The communication protocol addresses an element of data in a conversation that uses a
three-part naming convention that includes the application name, topic name and item
name. The following briefly describes each portion of this naming convention:
application name
The name of the Windows program (Server) that will be accessing the data element. In
the case of data coming from or going to SPA bus devices, the application portion of the
address is SPA.
topic name
Meaningful names are configured in the Server to identify specific devices. These names
are then used as the topic name in all conversations to that device. For example, spa02.
Note. You can define multiple topic names for the same device to poll different items at
different rates.
item name
Item is a specific data element within the specified topic. For the SPA Server, an item is
an individual point (Input, Output, Setting, Variable, Memory message) in the SPA bus
device (The item/point names are fixed by the SPA Server as described in the Item
Names section).
Note. In some cases, the term "point" is used interchangeably with the term "item".