AutomationDirect EBC OPC Server - KEPServerEX OPC Servers

Overview

Kepware's 32 bit AutomationDirect Ethernet Base Controller device driver works in conjunction with our OPC Server KEPServerEX, to provide data exchange between OPC Clients and Ethernet Base Controllers using UDP protocol. KEPServerEX automatically optimizes your data acquisition based on client demand. Data integrity is ensured with our extensive error handling. The AutomationDirect EBC OPC Server supports the Automatic Tag Database Generation features of KEPServerEX

AutomationDirect EBC OPC Server Diagram

Devices

Supported Devices

Device	Note
Terminator I/O
H2-EBC
H2-EBC-F
H4-EBC
H4-EBC-F	Use NetEdit to manually configure modules to base.
GS1	Drive
GS2	Drive
DURAPULSE (GS3) Drive	Drive

Features

Specific Driver Features

Specific

Supports Automatic Tag Database generation based on the modules installed in the rack for true plug and play operation.
Covers all I/O Modules supported by the EBC.
Support remote bases on H4-EBC, H4-EBC-F.
High Speed operation designed for SoftPLC I/O.
Supports GS1, GS2, GS3 Drives.
Support Serial ports on all units.
All data types supported.

General

Multi-threaded design ensures optimum performance
Full Time On-line operation allows on the fly changes
Channel Diagnostics with protocol display
OPC Diagnostic feature provides a real-time and historical view of OPC events that occur between any OPC client and the server
Additional System Tags provided for monitoring and diagnostics
Free OPC Test Client provided
Modem support included on all Serial port drivers
CSV file import and export of Server tags for easy configuration on large projects
Auto Demotion of Devices
Supports running as a Windows service
Supports direct scaling of device data which allows raw device data to be converted to engineering units for OPC client applications
Automatically backup project file on save
Includes a built-in User Manager that allows complete control over what types of functionality each individual user can access
Allows the user to specifically select a NIC card for use with any Ethernet driver or serial driver running in Ethernet Encapsulation mode
Supports up to 16 concurrent serial ports and PC card configurations

Client

OPC DA 1.0
OPC DA 2.05a
OPC DA 3.0

DDE CF-Text
NetDDE
AdvancedDDE
FastDDE for Wonderware’s Intouch

3rd Party Client Support

To see a list of HMI's and Clients that we support go to our HMI / Client Support page.

Required

Required Software and Hardware

Supported Operating Systems

Windows 2000 (SP4 or greater) (32 bit and 64 bit)
Windows Server 2003 (SP2 or greater) (32 bit and 64 bit)
Windows XP (SP2 or greater)
Windows Vista Business/Ultimate (32 bit and 64 bit)
Windows Server 2008 (32 bit and 64 bit)

PC Hardware

Minimum

400 Mhz Pentium CPU
128 Megs of RAM
100 Megs of Free Hard Drive Space

Recommended

600 Mhz Pentium CPU
512 Megs of RAM
100 Megs of Free Hard Drive Space

Hardware Requirements

For Device and Hardware Requirements see the Devices tab.
Hardware Accessories

Protocol

Communication Protocol

Ethernet using Winsock V1.1 or higher.

VB

Visual Basic

KEPServerEX Visual Basic OPC Client
Complex and Simple Visual Basic OPC Client Examples
Using Modems and Visual Basic with KEPServerEX.
Download the Modem and VB Example with Source Code
Knowledge Base

Help

Help/Links

Revisions

AutomationDirect EBC OPC Driver Revisions

Driver updates below coincide with Server Release V4.280.435.0 (04/30/08)

AutomationDirect EBC (V4.100.93.0)

- Added support to specify a port number for communications and auto tag generation. Auto tag generation port configuration is available only for GS model devices.

Driver updates below coincide with Server Release V4.270.416.0 (09/27/07)

All Drivers

- Fixed issue where server menu buttons like 'New', 'Open', 'Exit' would become permanently disabled when attempting to perform auto tag generation on a driver that had missing runtime dependencies.
- Fixed issue that could occur when multiple items with the same scan rate are read by exception and another item is added/asynchronously read/removed at that same rate. This issue resulted in stale data for those tags read by exception.

Driver updates below coincide with Server Release V4.264.401 (06/01/07)

All Drivers

- Fixed issue in the driver library where it was possible to delete a tag prior to stopping it. This would result in the accessing of invalid memory which could eventually result in an exception that would prevent a channel from processing any tags.

Driver updates below coincide with Server Release V4.210.367 (11/17/06)

All Drivers

- Fixed issue where a rapid sequence of item add, sync read, and item remove requests could result in bad OPC quality for some items included in a block sync read and/or sync read timeouts.
- Fixed issue with Unsolicited UDP Mode Ethernet Encapsulation mode, where driver would stop receiving unsolicited messages after sending a message.

AutomationDirect EBC (V4.80.83)

- Added support for P3.31, P4.13 - P4.18, P7.28 to model GS3 Drive.

Driver updates below coincide with Server Release V4.190.341 (11/23/05)

Automation Direct EBC (V4.72.78)

- Fixed an issue writing to Terminator I/O CTRIO discrete outputs DO32 and higher.

Driver updates below coincide with Server Release V4.180.338 (8/12/05)

AutomationDirect EBC (V4.70.75)

- NetEdit launch has been moved to General tab on Device Properties dialog.

Driver updates below coincide with Server Release V4.170.328 (5/19/05)

Automation Direct EBC (V4.70.72)

- Fixed data length issue for ReadModuleStatus that affects communications to T1H-EBC100 resulting in "Device not responding" errors.
- Fixed the handling of T1F-14THM and T1F-16RTD broken transmitter errors to prevent spurious error conditions. Works in conjunction with TIO firmware version 4.0.xxxx.
- Added support for P6.30 to model GS1, GS2 and GS3 Drives
- Added support for P9.39 to model GS1, GS2 and GS3 Drives

Driver updates below coincide with Server Release V4.160.316 (2/11/05)

AutomationDirect EBC (V4.70.69)

- Changed data type for P2.01(Slip Compensation) to FLOAT. WORD operation remains unaffected for GS1/GS2/GS3 Drives.
- Added support for Status tags for Terminator I/O modules. Only Extended Error information is currently supported. Extended Error is commonly returned from Analog modules with a broken transmitter (i.e. 14THM). This information is posted to the Event Log and now is available from a tag.

Driver updates below coincide with Server Release V4.150.304 (11/12/04)

AutomationDirect EBC (V4.70.67)

- Changed data type for P2.01 (Slip Compensation) to FLOAT. WORD operation remains unaffected for GS1/GS2/GS3 Drives.
- Added support for Status tags for Terminator I/O modules. Only Extended Error information is currently supported. Extended Error is commonly returned from Analog modules with a broken transmitter (i.e. 14THM). This information is posted to the Event Log and now is available from a tag.

Driver updates below coincide with Server Release V4.130.287 (5/28/04)

AutomationDirect EBC (V4.60.66)

- Added support for ST0.7,8,9,11,12,13 to model GS2 Drive.
- Added support for P9.21,22,23,24,25 to model GS2 Drive.
- Added support for P6.17,18 to model GS3 Drive.
- Added support for P7.3,4,5,6 to model GS3 Drive.

Driver updates below coincide with Server Release V4.120.274 (4/7/04)

AutomationDirect EBC (V4.60.59)

- Changed data type for GS-EDRV P0.04 (Max RPM) to WORD.
- Fixed memory reference for GS-EDRV ST0.0 (Status Monitor 1). Applies to all drives.
- GS float scaling is now parameter dependant - Added dialog for launching NetEdit.
- Changed "G3 Drive" model name to "DURApulse (G3) Drive". Current G3 users will notice the model change to "H2" as a result.
- Changed auto generated tag names to contain only alpha-numeric characters.
- Added parameter P8.2 support for GS3 drives.
- Changed data type support for parameter P2.1 from float to word as scaling is dependant on the value of P2.10.

Driver updates below coincide with Server Release V4.110.270 (3/22/04)

All Drivers

- Library fix affecting all drivers.

Driver updates below coincide with Server Release V4.106.269 (3/11/04)

AutomationDirect EBC (V4.50.54)

- Added Serial Status to GS Status Group.

Driver updates below coincide with Server Release V4.100.239 (7/10/03)

AutomationDirect EBC (V4.40.52)

- Enhanced tag update functionality.
- Added GS1/GS2/GS3 Drive support.

Driver updates below coincide with Server Release V4.90.237 (5/10/03)

All Drivers

All drivers have been updated to support 32 channels. (Exceptions are DDE Client driver, Modbus Plus, and SattBus).

AutomationDirect EBC (V4.33.48)

- Fix an issue with error clearing upon reading the status of a module. All errors that are resettable will now clear properly.
- Fixed and issue with serial port enumeration when multiple H2-SERIO modules exist in the same base.