Technical Expertise Center - OLE for Process Control (OPC)
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This area is dedicated to OLE for Process Control technologies. As a charter member of the OPC Foundation, Software Toolbox, Inc. believes that the OPC initiative is doing good things for the automation user by providing a standard framework for object oriented software products. We created this area to help you learn more about the OPC specifications.

Articles | Presentations | Commercially Available Products

Articles

• OPC - What is it ? What does it mean to me ?
• Straight talk about what is OPC ?
• DCOM as it relates to OPC - how to set it up

Presentations

• Using Visual Basic as an OPC Client - This presentation is a tutorial format that will give you an overview of how to use Visual Basic as an OPC client to connect to data sources throughout your plant or to other applications supporting the OPC Data Access interface. Although the sample shown will be for human machine interface, the concepts and technologies explained can be used in MES, ERP, or any other automation application where software applications need to be connected using the OPC Data Access specification and Visual Basic is the chosen tool. All Visual Basic to OPC connectivity tutorials are now located on our OPCActiveX.com website.
   
• Applying Internet Technology to Production Environment Monitoring - this paper from a user, Unifi Technology Group, shows how browsers, VB, and OPC servers were used to provide internet/intra-net based production environment monitoring systems for a global textile company.
  Download paper (PDF- 409 Kb) | Download Powerpoint Presentation (1706 Kb)
   
• OPC Data Access 2.0 Overview 280k - Powerpoint PPT file - From the OPC Foundation, this presentation by Al Chisholm, the Technical Committe Chairman, covers the OPC Data Access 2.0 specification and its key interfaces.
   
• OPC Alarms and Events 1.0 Overview 290k - Powerpoint PPT file - From the OPC Foundation, this presentation by Al Chisholm, the Technical Committe Chairman, provides a good overview of the OPC Alarms and Events specification.

Commercial Products - although we normally don't list commercial stuff here, we've had numerous requests from you, our readers, to include links to some of our products:

• List of Available OPC Servers from Software Toolbox
• OPC Data ActiveX - used to connect Visual Basic to OPC Servers without writing code while still maintaining high performance and flexibility for those that do want to use code.

Articles | Presentations | Commercially Available Products