Software Toolbox Technical Blog

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A common question I run into when talking to OmniServer users is "How can I gain more visibility into what is going on with my OmniServer."  After all, a primary concept for an OPC Server is to be invisible – to be a transparent converter between the protocol used by a device, and that used by your SCADA or HMI (i.e. OPC, Wonderware SuiteLink, etc.).

While there are a number of answers to how you can be more aware of what is going on with your system, this fourth post in our "OmniServer Did You Know?" blog series focuses on the importance of system tags, and specifically how they can be used in the OmniServer to query the health of the server as a whole, as well as individual device connections.

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As you likely already know, OmniServer is primarily used to retrieve information from devices that use ‘non-standard’ protocols to communicate such as weight scales, barcode readers, and printers.

But were you aware that OmniServer, as part of that function, is capable of specifying a default initial value for data items on startup?  In this third post in our "OmniServer Did You Know?" blog series, keep reading to find out how to use initial values for your data items in OmniServer and under what situations that will be important.

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There are some powerful new features available with TOP Server V6.1.  In case you missed it, I did a high-level post giving you an overview of the six biggest features from the V6.1 release - click here to see that post.

Today, I'd like to give you a more detailed review of the great improvements made to the Mitsubishi Ethernet driver in TOP Server V6.1.  Keep reading to find out about new device model support and some great increases in read and write performance for communication with your Mitsubishi controllers.

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With the release of Cogent DataHub Version 8, we have had a lot of interest in new USB camera support functionality. The following short video blog demonstrates step-by-step just how easy it is use the Cogent DataHub to establish a connection to a USB Camera and then securely tunnel that data to another computer and then create a DataHub WebView page that will allow you to view the camera image and control the camera remotely.

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If you're reading this, you likely have some use cases for working with InTouch LGH history files.  A classic way for InTouch users to log historical process data since just about the beginning of InTouch availability, there are still many of you out in the world with some usage of LGH logging to store historical data (or you at least have some legacy files you need to somehow utilize).

This blog post will discuss some unique ways to utilize LGH historical logging beyond the obvious use case of simply historizing process data being collected by InTouch.

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You may have heard about the latest OmniServer release – OmniServer V3.0.  OmniServer V3.0 includes enhancements to licensing and support management, as well as, several usability enhancements to the configuration interface including a new topic wizard and updated Configuration User Interface.  Well, we've also recently released a subsequent V3.0 build containing support for CSV import/export of protocol Command/Response Messages.

Continuing our blog series about specific V3.0 features - this blog post will detail the new import/export functionality designed to increase your efficiency and the ease mass editing protocol messaging on larger protocols when you're working with OmniServer to integrate your non-standard process devices.

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With the release of Cogent DataHub Version 8, we have had a lot of interest in OPC UA connectivity. The following short video blog demonstrates step-by-step just how easy it is to make an OPC UA connection between two DataHub nodes while also demonstrating how to manage security certificates in DataHub when making OPC UA connections.

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If you've ready any of my other recents posts regarding specific industries, you already understand how one of TOP Server's primary differentiators is the wide variety of different drivers/protocols to choose from for communicating with the multitude of device makes and models out there in the automation world.  Drivers for all of the major PLCs in manufacturing like Allen-Bradley, Siemens, Omron, Mitsubishi and many more have always been conveniently organized into driver suites.  But what about options for Water & Wastewater?

Continuing our series about specific industries covered by TOP Server, keep reading to find out specific details about the drivers and features available in TOP Server for the Water & Wastewater industries including several great features that should make your lives easier in TOP Server V6.0.