Transaction editor

One of the transaction editor’s powerful features is its ability to create global functions that all the tags can reuse. This reduces development time and allows changes to be made in one location for all the tags.

The U-CON driver also enables developers to write the transactions using a device ID variable as opposed to hard-coding the ID for each new device.
U-CON in action

EVSystems developers used the U-CON driver in two recent projects that required integrating GE Fanuc’s iFIX SCADA product with legacy devices using a proprietary RS-485 protocol.

A feature common to all Kepware drivers is that all the tags are available via OPC as well as the native nio interface in GE iFIX. The latter approach is particularly useful because data can be read directly in iFIX without configuring any OPC items, significantly reducing configuration and validation efforts.

The first application involved 50 cryogenic tank controllers, each with an RS-485 connection and its own ID. Adding a new tank to the U-CON driver was as simple as duplicating an existing tank and changing the ID property. In total, the cryogenic tank driver took developers no more than a week to write, with half of that time spent learning the protocol and gaining familiarity with the product. (Famous last words: "We don’t need to read the manual." Sometimes, it helps.)

Most recently, the development team used the U-CON driver to talk to a dozen Met One particle counters (see Figure 3). Though the connection remained RS-485, the protocol was entirely different, with a mix of hexadecimal and ASCII components. Nonetheless, total driver development time took about three days.