Using the OPC UA Server with GE Cimplicity (Release 4.1 and Prior)

This section describes the minimal configuration steps required to configure the GE Cimplicity OPC UA client to connect to a SmartServer IoT OPC UA server, and to monitor a datapoint on a device. GE Cimplicity is powerful software for developing HMI/SCADA projects that provide true client-server visualization and control. The latest release includes OPC UA auto-discovery. For more information about GE Cimplicity, go to https://www.ge.com/digital/applications/hmi-scada/cimplicity.

Use the procedure that follows to configure the GE Cimplicity OPC UA client to connect to a SmartServer IoT OPC UA server.

1. Log into the SmartServer configuration UI with the username and password.
   
   
   
   
2. Click OK to login as appropriate for your web browser.
   
   The Network Configuration page appears.
   
   
   
   
3. Click the OPC UA tab.
   
   The OPC UA Configuration page appears.
   
   
   
   

4. Enable the OPC UA Server option.
   
   
   
   

5. For subscription-based monitoring (event-driven) at the OPC UA client, the Monitored and Polled datapoint setting needs to be enabled on the SmartServer CMS Datapoint Properties widget. See Defining Datapoint Properties for more information. 
   
   
   
   This setting applies to datapoints on BACnet, LON (using IMM), and Modbus devices. For datapoints on LON devices using DMM, if polling is not enabled for the datapoint, the SmartServer automatically enables event-driver updates from the datapoint.
   
   
6. Launch Cimplicity Workbench and select File → New → Project.
   
   
   
   
7. From the Project Properties window, select the OPC UA Client protocol option. 
   
   
   
   
8. Click OK.
   
   
9. Select Project → Equipment → Ports and set the New Port fields.
   
   
   
   
10. Click OK.
    
    
11. Select Project → Equipment → Devices and set the New Device fields.
    
    
    
    
12. Click OK.
    
    

13. Select the OPC UA DA Configuration tab and update the Endpoint URL field with the SmartServer IoT OPC UA end point. 
    

    Note: The OPC UA endpoint URL that is used by the OPC UA client to communicate with the OPC UA server is:

    opc.tcp://smartserver-xxxxxxx.echelon.echcorp.com:55000/UA/echopcua-server where xxxxxxx is the SmartServer IoT’s install code.

    
    
    
    

14. Click Test Connection to test the communication between the GE Cimplicity client and the SmartServer IoT’s OPC UA server.
    
    
15. Select Project → Points → New to add a new point.
    
    
    
    
16. Enter the data for a New Point, including PointID (LuxLevel) and Device (OPC UA device previously added step #11).
    
    
    
    
17. Click OK.
    
    
18. Select the Device tab and click the NodeId button to launch the OPC UA Address Space Browser.
    
    
    
    
19. From the OPC UA Address Space Browser, select the monitored datapoint (nvoLuxLevel in the example below; datatype is an Integer/Uint 16).
    
    
    
    
20. Click OK. 
    
    
21. Save all the files and click Run to run the project.
    
    
    
    
22. Right-click the LuxLevel point and select Point Control Panel.
    
    
    
    The Point Control Panel appears.
    
    The value of the LuxLevel datapoint is 18 in the example below.