OPC UA Server Historic Data
Abstract
This document describes how to use the Crimson OPC UA Server’s Historic Data option.
Products
CR3000 series HMIs
Graphite series HMIs and Controllers
DA series Data Station DA30D
FlexEdge Controllers DA50A and DA70A
Required Software
Crimson 3.1
Crimson 3.2
Use Case
This feature enables an OPC UA Client application to access historical data from the Crimson OPC UA Server. The OPC client used in this example is OPC UA Expert from Unified Automation. You can download UA Expert OPC UA Client from this link:
https://www.unified-automation.com/downloads/opc-ua-clients.html
Crimson Database Configuration
This document assumes you already have a working database configuration for the Crimson OPC UA Server. Your OPC UA Client application can request historical data from the Crimson device. To do this, you need to configure the Historical Data option in the OPC UA Server settings.
Set the Record History setting to Enabled. The Sample Rate setting has a resolution of 1 second, and the default rate is set to 1 second. The Disk Usage setting will determine how much memory will be used on device’s memory card to record this history. Therefore, if you have a 2 GB card, and have this set at the default of 50%, you will have 1 GB of memory available for the history.
Note that for a FlexEdge Controller, this is different. It does not use the memory card for this feature. Instead it uses the built-in internal memory. There is approximately 509 MB of internal memory available on a FlexEdge. Therefore, if this is set to 50% on a FlexEdge Controller, you have 254 MB available for OPC data history.
The Collection Time indicates how much time is used for collecting data from the memory card and how much time is used for transmitting the data. This can typically be left at the default of 65%; but it can be reduced if you have issues with slow links.
It is important to note that this feature is intensive on memory card usage. This should not be used in conjunction with other features that do similar things with the memory card, such as MQTT buffering. If you attempt to use both OPC UA Historic Data and the MQTT buffering, it is possible that neither feature will work properly. Other memory card related features, such as data logging, could potentially be affected. If you have a large amount of data logging configured and enable the OPC Historic Data, that could potentially be an issue.
If this is a FlexEdge, you can use the memory card for data logging to avoid potential issues since the OPC history is on internal memory. But if you also use internal memory for data logging, you will not have a lot of room for data log files.
OPC UA Client
This feature has been tested with the UA Expert OPC UA Client. First you need to connect UA Expert to our OPC server. Click on Server | Add from the Menu bar, and in this dialog, configure it to add the device.
Then you need to add a History Trend View in UA Expert. Click on Document | Add from the Menu bar, select the History Trend View option from the Document Type dropdown, and click on Add.
Then drag and drop the tags you want into the Configuration pane. Now you can use the Single Update or Cyclic Update to read the data from the Crimson device. For the Single Update, set the Start Timem and End Time you want, and click on Update to see the data. You can also use the Cyclic Update to continuously poll the device. Set the Time Span and Update Interval as desired, then click the Start button.
Disclaimer
It is the customer's responsibility to review the advice provided herein and its applicability to the system. Red Lion makes no representation about specific knowledge of the customer's system or the specific performance of the system. Red Lion is not responsible for any damage to equipment or connected systems. The use of this document is at your own risk. Red Lion standard product warranty applies.
Red Lion Technical Support
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