Follow these steps to configure the National Instruments OPC Server and connect to your Allen Bradley Micrologix 1400 PLC:
- Go to Start >>Search>>National Instruments >> NI OPC Sever
- When you have NI OPC Server open, click on File >> New
- If a dialog box appears mentioning that a certain number of clients are going to be disconnected, click on the Yes button and select that the changes are NOT saved.
- Then click on Click to add a channel.
- Set a name to the channel, for example: Motor Control.
- Click on Next.
- From the list of Device Driver: select on ControlLogix Ethernet.
- Click on Next.
- Select the network adapter, preferably use the default adapter.
- Click on Next.
- In the window of Summary click on Finish.
- Click on Click to add a device.
- Select a name for your device.
- Select on Next.
- From the drop-down menu of Device-Model select Micrologix 1400.
- Click on Next.
- In the Device ID field, set the IP address of your PLC (example 192.168.0.100). NOTE: The IP address depends on your PLC, it is recommended to ping the device address to make sure there is communication with it before configuring the OPC Server.
- Click on Next.
- In the Summary window click on the Finish button.
- Now it only remains to add the tags for which you can click on the area where it says: Click to add a static tag. Tags are not required, but are browsable by OPC clients.
Or directly in the taskbar icon
- Example of a label to write a single Boolean line: Output of port zero, line 0 (O: 0/0) Micrologix
- Example of a label to read a word: Input of word 71 (I: 71)
NOTE: For more information on the appropriate syntax, refer to the Help »Driver Help and select the ControlLogix Ethernet driver for this case. Within the help navigate to ControlLogix Ethernet »Address Descriptions» Micrologix 1400 Addressing. From the menu you can select Output Files, Input File, Timer Files, Counter Files, etc.