AutomationDirect DirectNet OPC Server - KEPServerEX OPC Servers

Overview

Kepware's 32 bit AutomationDirect DirectNET device driver works in conjunction with our OPC Server KEPServerEX, to provide data exchange between OPC Clients and DirectNET protocol compliant PLCs. KEPServerEX automatically optimizes your data acquisition based on client demand. Data integrity is ensured with our extensive error handling.

DirectNET OPC Server

This driver is part of the AutomationDirect OPC Server Suite. Purchasing either the AutomationDirect ECOM OPC Server, the AutomationDirect DirectNet OPC Server, or the AutomationDirect K Sequence OPC Server entitles you to all of the drivers.

Devices

Supported Devices

Device	Note
DL-05
DL-06
DL-230
DL-240
DL-250
DL-260
DL-330
DL-340
DL-350
DL-430
DL-440
DL-450

Features

Specific Driver Features

Specific

Supports Ethernet Encapsulation.
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

Koyo DirectNet Hex Mode Protocol

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

DirectNet OPC Driver Revisions

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.

DirectNet (V4.64.75)

- Added support for DL-350 model.
- Fixed issue where array tags of size 128 words could not be read.

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.

DirectNet (V4.51.69)

- Fixed issue when unexpected bytes are received on writes, resulting in successive writes to never occur, requiring a restart of the server.

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

DirectNet (V4.42.61)

- Added address range R.

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

DirectNet (V4.42.60)

- Added read-only Byte support for 305 R registers.

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

DirectNet (V4.41.58)

- Changed default import file extension from .txt to .csv.
- Changed model "DL-250" to "DL-250(-1)"

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)

DirectNet (V4.41.55)

- Added Automatic Tag Database Generation feature.

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).

Driver updates below coincide with Server Release V4.84.227

DirectNet (V4.34.46)

- Added support for new PLC models DL-05, DL-06, DL-260.