Emerson Exchange 365

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Start an application on OPC value change tool

Hello,

Is there any tool to be installed on Application Station to run some application (MS Excel), while an OPC value is changed from False to True?.

Regards

Sebastian

• OPC

Sebastian

• 13 Jan 2020 9:53 AM
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6 Replies

• Andre Dicaire

  

  • 14 Jan 2020 4:02 PM

  Interesting request. All you need is a small form factor OPC Client that monitors an OPC Tag, and on a data transition, launches the Application.
  
  An Excel Sheet itself could monitor via the Excel OPC Addin for DeltaV and via VBA in Excel, you could do what ever you want. There is documentation in BOL for creating an OPC application. I'm not aware of such a solution, but it could be done.
  
  The DeltaV Log Books can be configured with the Event Monitor and an OPC Trigger that will automatically create a Log entry. There are automation tools in Logbooks that would allow for automatic actions. However, that alone is not likely not sufficient to justify purchasing this product. But if you are looking for an electronic Logbook, this could give you a possible solution.
  
  If no one on this forum has a recommended solution, you can reach out to OPC focused providers like Integration Objects or Kepware etc. and see if they have such a tool available for download. I would be cautious obtaining anything via the Internet and only use a solution from a reputable provider.
  
  I'm thinking the quickest way into a Control System is through a Trojan Horse OPC Client. Do not download and install unverified OPC clients on your Application station.
  
  I mentioned Integration Objects because they are listed in Emerson's Alliance program. They have an OPC Toolkit to help develop custom OPC solutions and may be able to provide services to create what you want. Depends on your world area. Talk with your Emerson sales/service provider as well.
  
  Good luck

  Andre Dicaire

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• MPhatale

  

  • 14 Jan 2020 4:42 PM

  If I understood correctly, We have prototype a case where an user selects a cell in excel (or changes the focus in excel sheet) and if the cell value is a MODULE name then respective FP (or DT ) is opened in DeltaV Operate Run mode. 

  
  

  If you extend/modify this concept for OPC Tags, then I think, its feasible to achieve the required feature in your case.

  
  

  Note: We used Event Scheduler to sense the Value Change.

  
  

  Let me know if need further clarifications.

  
  

  
  

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• Sebastian

  

  • 15 Jan 2020 8:17 AM

  In reply to MPhatale:

  Hello it is an Application Station (no Operate available). I was considering using PSEXEC on some operator station in their operate scheduler to execute an excel on Application Station, however it seems to be not too stable solution.
  Using Excel with DeltaV addin is not an option, due to I need to open another excel file, which has some default startup macro inside to gather 100-3000 OPC values (depending which excel is open). Once it is started from master excel (then values are collected and after that report is saved and closed), then VBA script in master excel file stops executing :-(. Therefore I'm forced to use some external tool to open Excel files on OPC value change.
  I cant use any DV based report tool as well as I know from the past there were some issues when too many string values are stored.
  I've found some Python based tool OpenOPC-1.3.1.win32. It works excellent with DV14.3.1 and WS2016 with getting values. Once properly installed it can be used by MS CMD line. Then I can write some *.BAT file to monitor and open relevant excel files. Hopefully it will work.

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• MPhatale

  

  • 15 Jan 2020 8:40 AM

  Great to hear that you have some workable option in your hand!

  
  

  A suggestion, instead of using .BAT files prefer advanced techniques. May be PowerShell or a custom Python base application. 

  
  

  Even Windows Task Schedule may work if the dependency (monitoring logic) is not complicated.

  
  

  May I request to keep this thread updated with your success story.

  
  

  Thanks and Regards.

  
  

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• Sebastian

  

  • 26 Jan 2020 4:15 PM

  In reply to MPhatale:

  Hello,
  My final solution is to have a custom Python2.7 script using penOPC-1.3.1.win32 and it works really good. Now we can collect unlimited number of OPC tags.
  My script is checking an OPC value (if it is ok to pull a data) and if no other excel is open it starts to open an Excel report template (one from 15 different templates, depending which part of process data we want to collect) file with embedded script to pull DV values. Once values are collectd, excel save and close itself, releasing an OPC license. In our case we are monitoring 30k+ parameters per batch on a single tank (currently we have 6 tanks), so we couldn't collect all data even using biggest (30k tags)OPC license. Now it is not a problem.
  Tested on a DV14.3.1 system.

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• Andre Dicaire

  

  • 27 Jan 2020 4:44 PM

  In reply to Sebastian:

  That sounds good. thanks for sharing.

  Andre Dicaire

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