RSLinx OPC Server to SAP MII

[Former Member]

Dear Experts,

Need your suggestions on couple of questions I had.

Using MII 12.1 version build 46 , Pco 2.1 as OPC Client , RSLinx Classic as an OPC Server.

Customer is having 25 machines in the plant

1. Client is asking for ShopFloor Monitoring System dashboard from SAP MII like machine on/off status,production figure etc.
2. How to manage one RSLinx OPC server installed on one machine to SAP MII Dev,Quality and Production Servers.(Single OPC Server)

For Point1 , Is it a recommended approach from SAP MII to get the tags for every minute through Pco and show it on  MII dashboard

I mean to say is it ok to get the tags on every minute and build a live system from SAP MII ?

For Point2 ,  I am using RSLinx Classic as an OPC server(only one OPC server installed on a PC) ,

how  to refer to this single OPC server to SAP MII dev , Quality and Prod servers.

Can we run all the MII servers on this single point of OPC server ,Should this RSLinx software to be installed on different PC's ?

Is this is a recommendable approach ..?

Please guide me as I am new to this shop floor integration part.

Highly appreciate your early help.

Best Regards,

Eswar.

[former_member196557 · Accepted solution]

Hi Eswar,

To Point 1: MII can pull (query) the OPC tag data on a specifiied interval and render the data in MII UI content.

To Point 2: Technically, the RSLinx OPC Server can serve multiple Clients.  For the landscape:

What is the archtecture: 

• One RSLinx, One PCo installed on same PC (should be a server class machine)
• One RSLinx, One PCo, PCo installed on a different PC (will require DCOM security configuration  for remote OPC connection)
• One RSLinx, Many PCo on different PC (DCOM configuration required for remote OPC connections)

Regards, Steve

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Dear Steve,

Thanks for the prompt reply.

For the point1 , it is fine , we can pull the data on one minute interval ,ok

For the point2 ,the Architecure currently I had :

One RsLinx , one Pco installed on the same PC .

I am done with the development activities in MII , planning to move data to Quality now.

So I am looking for help from experts , best architecture to proceed with .

Should I go with different Pco connections on the same PC itself for Quality and Prod on which RsLinx is installed ?

Please suggest me for the same.

Regards,

Eswar

[former_member196557 · Accepted solution]

Eswar,

for a single PCo instance I would set up a separate PCo Agent Instance for each of the MII connections (Dev, QA, Prod) and point each MII Data Server to the appropriate PCo Agent Instance.

Also, I would recommend that you upgrade to the latest PCo version as there are many bug fixes and improvements in the new version, as well as the ability to copy and rename PCo objects (Source Agents, Instances, Notifications, Destinations).

Regards, Steve

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Many Thanks Steve,

Your recommended approach solved my problem.

Regards,

Eswar

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Dear Steve,

Just an update .

So a PCo agent instance to be created for each MII instance (Dev,QA,Prod)

There wont be any performance issues here right , when I run the three MII servers at same time

For Point1 , I am creating a new Pco instance for monitoring screen as it wouldn't effect the other schedulers I am running in DEV .

When I put automatic page refresh for every minute , I observed the tags I am using to fetch the machine production data giving me empty values , so I am creating new agent instance for the same.

Have you ever faced this type of errors ? using RSLinx OPC server.

Please confirm steve, waiting for your earlier reply

Regards,

Eswar

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Dear Steve,

Any information on the above point please ..

Regards,

Eswar

[former_member196557 · Accepted solution]

Hi Eswar,

How are you defining the tags to be queried in the page refresh? Are these defined in the PCoQuery templete directly or are you assigning them to a PCoQuery within a transaction?

Can you execute the PCoQuery with the tags from the workbench and see the values?

Also, for DEV/QA testing, you can change the Log Level for the PCo Agent Instance to Verbose to see the messages to get additional details on the tag queries in PCo. Just make sure to delete the log periodically or change the Log Level back to Warning when you have finished testing.

Regards, Steve

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Dear Steve,

sorry for late reply..

Many Thanks for your help.

I am using MII tag query to get the tag information ..

I put the page refresh option in java scripting to fetch the tag details on every minute.

like running the web page on every minute to load the tags to get latest updated information .

Information from machines like on/off , stoppage time , no.of stops , current Production to be displayed on web page .

Do we have any other automatic approach here , using MII 12.1 here , Pco 2.1 ?

Kindly suggest me the suitable approach to proceed .

Regards,

Eswar

[former_member196557 · Accepted solution]

HI Eswar,

1. Are you still getting empty values in a page refresh? If so, run this from the DEV MII instance and set the DEV PCo agent instance Log Level to Verbose and confirm that you are receiving the query messages and are retrieving values correctly.

2. You should upgrade PCo to the latest version 2.3 SP2.  There have been a number of bug fixes and improvements over version 2.1.

3. For now, having the MII Pages generate the queries from a page refresh or using javascript is the only automatic way to retrieve the data. 

Regards, Steve