Connection to a DA server that dont support browsing

[HenrikH]

Hi,

We have some old machines with OPC DA servers built-in to the HMI software (Siemens HMI advanced). The DA servers in this case don't support browsing of tags, the node names must always be entered manually.
We have made a test to install UaGateway on the HMI computers to be able to connect a OPC UA client remotely to the machines. Connection to the UaGateway server works fine and it seems that connection from there to the underlaying DA server is also working but we cant figure out how to enter an item name and read a value.
Shuold it be possible to make this work with UaGateway? If it is possible, do you have any sugestion on how to set it up?

Thank you and best regards,
Henrik

[Support Team]

Hello,

the UaGateway is designed to work with OPC DA Servers that are compliant to OPC DA Spec 2.05a or even better DA3.0. However, in your case the ability not to browse is of course a strong limitation. You will need UA Clients which are capable of manually configuring NodeIDs, which are quite rare. You can only "guess" the ItemID (NodeID) which is constructed inside the UaGateway by a "prefix" and the "real ItemID" of the underlying DA server, separated by the "|" symbol.

There are two choices you can give a try using the "Administration Dialog".
1) on the tab "OPC DA (COM)" you can select the "Default NameSpace" and assign it on the "one" underlying server that can not be browsed.
>> with that you can (manually) type in the NodeIDs (NodeID = node name, plus name space, plus ID type) whereas the node name is the "real ItemID" in the underlying DA server.
2) on the tab "OPC COM ItemIDs" you can assign a custom "prefix" to the namespace where the "non-browse" server is mapped to
>> with that you can use the decribed syntax for the node name: <prefix|MyItemID>

Best Regards
Support Team