Category: Knowledge Base

One Click Enterprise Wide Data Access to Real-Time Data from Windows and Non Windows (Smart Phones)

• No Client Licensing
• No DCOM
• Very Low Bandwidth
• No Impact on Windows Registry
• Works with any browser
• MEANS MUCH LOWER COST OF ACQUISITION, DEVELOPMENT, DEPLOYMENT AND MAINTENANCE
• Access OPC Servers, Databases, Direct Access to Devices, Other Applications, and Competing SCADA Systems become Data Sources for us
• Deliver the data to Any Screen, Database, Application, Person that you need it delivered to (Windows or Non-Windows (Smart Phones, MACS’ Linux etc.(anything that works with a browser)

Performance

Open Automation Software consistently out performs all major brands of SCADA and HMI software in many ways.

• Monitor over 1,000,000 tags from OAS Service.
• Open Automation Software is designed to run on business networks.
• Open Automation Software network load is from 1/1000 to 1/1,000,000 to that of our competitors.
• Efficiently move large amounts of data across your local network or across the enterprise.
• Log over 1,000,000 data points to an open database with no loss of data even on network loss.
• Easily deliver vital data to all levels of the enterprise.
• Only one connection to you data source(Reduced load)

Reliability

• Because Open Automation Software is a service oriented architecture activity occurs at the OAS Service. This allows the service to automatically buffer data on network loss. How does this affect your system?
  • Data logging – All data can be buffered on loss of network or database connection. As soon as the connection is restored Open Automation Software will push the buffered data to the database server. Better still Open Automation Software employs a method to parse the data to the server without overloading the database server or the network with large amounts of data.
  • Trending – Trend data can be buffered on network loss. This means no blank spaces in you HMI trend windows. The missing data will be added to your trend as soon as the network connection is restored.
  • Alarming – Alarm data can be buffered on network loss. This means no missing Alarms in you HMI alarm windows. The missing data will be added to your alarm window as soon as the network connection is restored.
  • All of the above applies to data transfer across your local network or the internet.
• DCOM can be fragile – Just changing a few seemingly unrelated settings on one PC can break the connectivity causing hours of downtime, lost productivity and I.T. overhead. OPC system eliminates the need for DCOM enabling you to use Open Automation Software TCP as the communications platform. This reduces the network load and hours of configuration of DCOM settings.

Flexibility

• With 19 products to choose from you only need to purchase what is relevant to your project.
• Connect to a verity of data sources such as Modbus, Allen Bradley, Siemens, MQTT, OPC Servers, OPC Clients, Databases, Excel, and .Net applications.
• Because Open Automation Software frees your data you can easily move you data to existing enterprise systems like SAP.
• Want to move data form you database to your HMI without the security risk. Open Automation Software Recipe.Net allows you to securely move database data to your HMI or Device on your local network or across the internet.
• Ever have a customer request that that was impossible to accomplish with you existing SCADA software? Open Automation Software uses Microsoft Visual Studio as it development platform. You can accomplish virtually anything that a customer has in mind. If you don’t have the resources, contact us and one of our software engineers can help you.
• Need a change to Open Automation Software or a new feature? – We can quickly provide what you are looking for. No need to wait 6 Months for a new release. We often provide our customers changes within hours or a few days.
• Open Automation Software can be integrated with and alongside competing SCADA application to provide features that they don’t provide.

Price

The initial cost of Open Automation Software is far less than our competitors. But the savings don’t stop there.

• No charge for client licenses – That means that you can deploy as many client applications as you want.
• Easily and quickly develop world class SCADA systems using Open Automation Software and Visual Studio with no programming required.
• Rapid application development reduces development costs and speeds up time to market.
• Reduced IT cost. Open Automation Software client applications have no impact on the client machine registry.
• Open Automation Software is designed to run on your business network. We are not restricted to closed control networks. This provides much more bang for your buck by allowing key information to be shared to business systems.
• Purchase what you need when you need it – Open Automation Software is completely customizable with 19 features to choose from you have ultimate flexibility. View OAS Pricing for some basic examples.
• Ever try to get data from one of their closed proprietary databases? Then you know how much it costs just to get access. Then try to interface that to your business systems, the cost skyrockets. With Open Automation Software we are all about data access.  We can log data to SQL Server, MS Access, Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, or CSV.
• Often the cost of switching to Open Automation Software is less the then yearly maintenance of our competitors. Effectively providing a return on investment in less than one year and saving for every year thereafter. Not to mention the reduced IT costs and the benefit of have access to key data enterprise wide.

One more thing that sets Open Automation Software apart we don’t ask you to take our work for it. Download a fully functional trial with unlimited tags and products and ask for a free presentation tailored to your specific needs.

Open Automation Software is comprised of several .NET assemblies used to accomplish real-time communications to:

• Allen Bradley
• Siemens
• Modbus
• MQTT
• OPC Servers
• OPC Clients
• Visual Studio.NET applications
• Microsoft Excel
• database engines like SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, and Access.

Programming skills not required

You do not have to be a programmer to use most of the components, and all of the components can be implemented with no programming experience.

Refer to the Getting Started section of this help file for a quick walkthrough of all the most common features of Open Automation Software and how to setup an application.

Refer to the Programmatic Interface section on how to programmatically access realtime, historical, and configuration data.

Eliminates the need for DCOM

DCOM stands for Distributed Component Object Model, a proprietary Microsoft technology for communication among software components distributed across networked computers. The central communications service eliminates the need for DCOM by implementing Windows Communication Foundation communications over adjustable TCP port 58724.

Realtime Database

The real-time database provides data for Human Machine Interface (HMI), trending, alarming, data logging, recipe management, alarm notification, for standard Windows applications, Windows Presentation Foundation applications, and web based applications.

Because all .NET components are 100% managed and communications is implemented using .NET you can deploy Smart Client or Web applications for communications over the Internet with roll based Security defined using Configure-Security and Configure-Users on the OAS Service data source.

Each licensed OAS Service supports local and remote client applications.

OAS Windows Service

The core of Open Automation Software is the OAS Windows Services that perform communications to local and remote data sources using Open Automation Software Tags. The OAS Service Tags can also be updated directly from Visual Studio applications with any type of data using the OPC Controls Data component.

With this design you can then create a SCADA application for your own custom data without an OPC Client or Server, however the data can easily be shared with other OPC Clients and Servers.

Configure OAS Application

Using the Configure OAS application or the free Open Automation Software programmatic interface you can add Tags that can have a data source directly to any of the following:

• Modbus
• Allen Bradley
• Siemens
• MQTT
• an OPC Item from an OPC Server
• a fixed Value
• a Value from another Tag,
• a Calculation result with one or more local and or remote Tags in the equation.  Each Tag Value can be evaluated for High, High High, Low, Low Low, Rate of Change, or Digital Alarm conditions.  Each Alarm Limit can also be a fixed Value, a Value from another Tag, an OPC Item value, or a Calculation result.

Time On and Counts feature

Tags can also be used to keep track how long something has been on or how many times it transitions is a day, week, month, or any time frame you desire with the Time On and Counts feature.

OAS Windows Service

The OAS Windows Service provides real-time data to:

• OAS Excel Connector
• .NET WPF HMI
• .NET WinForm HMI
• Web HMI
• OPC Client Connector
• trend data to .NET Trend and Web Trend components
• alarm data to .NET Alarm and Web Alarm components
• Data Logging for Database.NET feature
• Alarm Logging for the Alarm.NET logging feature
• Alarm Notification via e-mail and real-time alarm statistics using Alarm.NET alarm notification feature.

Use OPC Tunnel for real-time data transfer back to Modbus, Allen Bradley, Siemens controllers, MQTT, and OPC Servers.

Use Recipe.NET to transfer values from a database to Tags which can automatically write to Modbus, Allen Bradley, Siemens controller, MQTT, or OPC Servers.

Security features

You can limit configuration and data access using the built in security features to define Security Groups and Security Users.

Connect to OPC Clients

OPC Client Connector provides unlimited local and remote connectivity to OPC Clients through the OPC Systems .NET OPC Server. The OPC Systems .NET OPC Server can be installed and used on local and remote systems with OPC Clients to provide .NET communications to any Open Automation Software Tag.

Viewing Data

Once the OAS Windows Service is setup for the desired features the Trends and Alarms Dashboard application can be used to view the real-time trend data using the .NET Trend component, historical data from the Database.NET feature using the .NET Trend component, and real-time and historical alarms using the .NET Alarm component.

Integration with other .NET applications

The .NET Trend, .NET Alarm, .NET WinForm HMI, .NET WPF HMI, Web Trend, Web Alarm, and Web HMI components can be integrated into any .NET container application like a Visual Studio.NET application. These components work with local and remote OAS Services.

Modbus Data Connector

The OAS Modbus Data Connector allows you to connect directly to Modbus slave devices with the built in Modbus Driver Interface which supports communications over Ethernet and Serial interfaces with Modbus TCP, Modbus RTU, and Modbus ASCII protocols.

Allen Bradley Data Connector

The OAS Allen Bradley Data Connector allows you to connect directly to Allen Bradley controllers with the built in ABLogix and ABClassic Driver Interfaces which support communications over Ethernet to ControlLogix, CompactLogix, GuardLogix, and Micro800 with the ABLogix driver, and MicroLogix, SLC 500, and PLC-5 with the ABClassic driver.  The following steps can be used to setup direct communications with Allen Bradley controllers.

Siemens Data Connector

The OAS Siemens Data Connector allows you to connect directly to Siemens controllers with the built in Siemens Driver Interfaces which support communications over Ethernet to S7-200, S7-300, S7-400, S7-1200, and S7-1500.

MQTT Data Connector

The OAS MQTT Data Connector allows you to  connect to MQTT devices and software brokers with the built in MQTT Driver Interface

OPC Servers

The OPC Tunnel product allows an OAS Service to write values from any Tag Parameter to an OPC Item in an OPC Server.  This simplifies remote networking by installing the OAS Service at each OPC Server system and take advantage of the built in TCP communications in Open Automation Software.

OPC Clients

The OPC Client Connector product enabled unlimited local and remote OPC Clients to communicate with a licensed OAS Service. This design allows unlimited OPC Client connections while maintaining only one OPC connection to the local OPC Servers.

Also third party .NET data can be added to the real-time database using OPC .NET WinForm HMI .NET, OAS WPF HMI .NET, or OPC Mobile.NET, and read only data from databases of SQL Server, Oracle, or Access can be integrated with OAS Recipe.

Data from Microsoft Excel can be enabled for read and write functions using OAS Excel Connector. OPC Client Connector eliminates the need for remote DCOM configuration as all communications is performed using .NET, not DCOM.

.NET Applications

The OPCSystemsDataConnector product allows you to access data from the Open Automation Software real-time data service. This is done using the OPCSystemsDataConnector component in the OPCSystemsDataConnector.dll.

Microsoft Excel

The OAS Excel Connector product provides connectivity to Microsoft Excel Workbooks for both read and write functionality. The OAS Excel Connector can interface with Microsoft Excel 2003, 2007, and 2010.

Databases : SQL Server, Oracle, Access, MySQL and CSV

Using the Universal Data Connector product you can log data to SQL Server, Oracle, Access, MySQL, and CSV files based on event, continuously, time of day, or on data change.

Data Historian

The OAS Data Historian product allows you to log data to SQL Server, Oracle, Access, MySQL, and CSV files based on event, continuously, time of day, or on data change.

Report

The OAS Report product provides the Report Designer for easily creating reports from data logged with OAS Data Log or OAS Alarm .NET.  These reports are then executed from selectable execution types such as event driven from a Tag, continuous as a specified frequency, hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly.

Filter constraints can be added for filtering data to previous  hour, current hour, previous day, current day, previous week, current week, previous month, current month, or custom time frame.

You can also use an Open Automation Software Tag value with a string data type as a dynamic query string to filter based on any live data values.

Recipe

The OAS Recipe product provides data transfer from databases to OPC data.  The data target can be from local or remote OAS Services of Tag Parameter Values.  The execution can be continuous up to 1 second speed, event driven from a Tag Parameter value, or at a specific time of day.  The database providers can be SQL Server, SQL Server Desktop (MSDE), Access, Oracle, mySQL, or ODBC.

Excel

The OAS Excel Connector product provides connectivity to Microsoft Excel Workbooks for both read and write functionality. The OAS Excel Connector can interface with Microsoft Excel 2003, 2007, and 2010.

Each licensed service for OAS Excel Connector can support unlimited local and remote Excel Workbooks.  You can even have Excel Workbooks access data from OPC Servers over the Internet.  All other data sources with their respective product features are also supported like OPC Clients, databases, and .NET applications.

OPC Client

The OPC Client Connector product enables unlimited local and remote OPC Clients to communicate with a licensed OAS Service.  This design allows unlimited OPC Client connections while maintaining only one OPC connection to the local OPC Servers.

Also third party .NET data can be added to the real-time database using OPC .NET WinForm HMI .NET, OAS WPF HMI .NET, or OPC Mobile.NET, and read only data from databases of SQL Server, Oracle, or Access can be integrated with OAS Recipe.  Data from Microsoft Excel can be enabled for read and write functions using OAS Excel Connector.  OPC Client Connector eliminates the need for remote DCOM configuration as all communications is performed using .NET, not DCOM.

OPC Route

The OPC Tunnel product allows an OAS Service to write values from any Tag Parameter to an OPC Item in an OPC Server.  This simplifies remote networking by installing the OAS Service at each OPC Server system and take advantage of the built in TCP communications in Open Automation Software.

Web HMI

The OAS Web HMI product allows you to create user interfaces to display and interact with real time server data, enabling a whole range of applications on any device with a web browser. By utilizing standard, platform-agnostic technologies such as HTML5, CSS, Javascript, JQuery, and JSON, web developers can quickly create new interfaces or integrate Web HMI functionality into existing web applications with minimal effort.

Getting started with Web HMI is as simple as including the Javascript reference libraries on a web page and adding markup to HTML elements. Our custom attributes add behaviors to display data values, alter appearance, or even toggle element visibility, all based on real time data streamed from an OAS Server.

Web Trend

The OAS Web Trend product allows you to display real time and historical trend data in an interactive or animated graphical format on any device with a web browser. By utilizing standard, platform-agnostic technologies such as HTML5, CSS, Javascript, JQuery, and JSON, web developers can create useful graphical representations of their data for operator dashboards, reporting, and analysis.

Getting started with Web Trend is as simple as including the Javascript reference libraries on a web page along with some small code snippets to configure trend point rendering and to process incoming data streams.

Web Alarm

The OAS Web Alarm product allows you to display real time and historical alarms in an interactive table, viewable on any device with a web browser. By utilizing standard, platform-agnostic technologies such as HTML5, CSS, Javascript, JQuery, and JSON, web developers can create useful operator dashboards for managing system alarms.

WinForm HMI .NET

The OPC .NET WinForm HMI .NET product provides Human Machine Interface (HMI) .NET controls and real-time data communications components.

The product includes the Windows Services to read and write OPC Items and Tag Parameters and process data to unlimited local and remote applications developed with the OPC Controls components.

WPF HMI .NET

The WPF HMI .NET product provides Human Machine Interface (HMI) .NET controls and real-time data communications components for Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) applications.

The product includes the Windows Services to read and write OPC Items and Tag Parameters and process data to unlimited local and remote applications developed with the OPC Controls components.
HMI applications can be developed using Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 (or later) or Microsoft Expression Blend with no programming required.

Applications developed with OAS WPF HMI .NET can run locally and remotely.

Trend.NET

The OAS Trend .NET product provides real-time trending for WinForm and WPF applications and historical trending when combined with the product feature OAS Data Log.

OAS Trend .NET includes the windows services to provide real-time data, a .NET component to be used on local and remote systems to connect to the local windows service, and together with OAS Data Log provides historical replay to the OPCTrendControl component.

Alarm.NET

The OAS Alarm .NET product provides real-time alarming for WinForm and WPF applications

Alarming can be enabled to monitor both analog and digital signals with fixed, adjustable, and tracking alarm limits. Alarm limits can be defined for high high, high, low, low low, rate of change, and digital alarms.

.NET Data Connector

To access data from the Open Automation Software real-time data service you can use the OPCSystemsDataConnector component in the OPCSystemsDataConnector.dll.

Following are the key topics in the Online Help:

• Getting Started with OAS: Quick overview of installing Open Automation Software and a section for Quick Start Examples.
• System Configuration: How to setup Tags, Data Logging, Alarm Logging, Alarm Notification, Alarm and Events OPC Servers, Reports, Recipes, Security, Security Users, Options, Live Data Cloud networking, UDP Broadcast networking, and Licensing.
  • Getting Started – Tags: How to setup Open Automation Software Tags manually, using CSV files, or programmatically.
  • Getting Started Modbus: How to setup communications to Modbus devices for Modbus TCP, RTU, and ACSII.
  • Getting Started Allen Bradley: How to setup communications to ControlLogix, CompactLogix, GuardLogix, Micro800, MicroLogix, SLC 500, and PLC-5.
  • Getting Started Siemens: How to setup communications to S7-200, S7-300, S7-400, S7-1200, and S7-1500.
  • Getting Started MQTT: How to setup communications to MQTT brokers for communications to MQTT devices and software.
  • Getting Started – Data Logging: How to setup data logging to SQL Server, Oracle, Access, mySQL, and CSV files.
  • Getting Started – Alarm Logging: How to setup data logging to SQL Server, Oracle, Access, mySQL, and CSV files.
  • Getting Started – Alarm Notification: How to setup alarms to be sent via email, voice message, or text message.
  • Getting Started – Reports: How to setup reports to be automatically generated to pdf, html, Word, and Excel.
  • Getting Started – Recipes: How to setup data transfer from SQL Server, Oracle, Access, and mySQL to Open Automation Software Tags.
  • Getting Started – Security: How to setup user security to restrict configuration changes and real-time and historical data access.
  • Getting Started – Options: How to setup the Open Automation Software service settings for common attributes.
  • Getting Started – Live Data Cloud: How to setup networking to host data on the Internet from your own PC(s).
  • Getting Started – License: How to activate a software license for Open Automation Software.
• .NET WPF HMI: How to create a WPF HMI application.
• .NET WinForm HMI: How to create a WinForm HMP application.
• .NET Trend: How to add trending to a WPF or WinForm application.
• .NET Alarm: How to add alarming to a WPF or WinForm application.
• Web HMI: How to create a Web HMI application.
• Web Trend: How to create a Web trending application.
• Web Alarm: How to create a Web alarming application.
• Excel: How to add realtime data access to Microsoft Excel.
• OPC Server to OPC Server: How to automatically transfer data from OPC Servers to OPC Servers.
• 3rd Party OPC Client: How to access Open Automation Software tag values in an OPC Client.
• Networking: Videos and syntax on how to best implement networking and the different ways that is possible.
• Programmatic Interface: Examples on how to access Configurations and Real-time data via programmatic interface using .NET or JSON-jQuery.
• Redundancy: Best practices for implementing redundant systems.
• Frequently Asked Questions: Common topics to speed the understanding of all Open Automation Software features.
• Videos: A complete list of all training videos.
• Support: Contact information for obtaining sales or technical product assistance.