Using the OPC UA Server with GE Cimplicity

With SmartServer Pi 4.2 and higher, OPC UA is a Beta release.

This section describes the minimal configuration steps required to configure the GE Cimplicity OPC UA client to connect to a SmartServer 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 OPC UA server.

1. Open the SmartServer Configuration page as described in Accessing the SmartServer IoT Configuration Page. The Network tab appears as the default SmartServer Configuration page. Once the network settings are configured for the SmartServer system, then the System tab will appear as the default.
   
   
   SmartServer IoT Network tab
   
   
   SmartServer IoT System tab
   
   
   For SmartServer Pi, open the SmartServer Configuration page as described in Accessing the SmartServer Pi Configuration Page. The Configuration view that appears depends on your cache data. As needed, click the SmartServer IoT tab. The System tab (top) will appear as the default as shown below.
   
   
   SmartServer Pi System tab
   
   
2. Click the OPC UA tab. 
   
   
   SmartServer IoT OPC UA disabled status
   
   
   SmartServer Pi OPC UA disabled status
   
   

3. Enable the OPC UA server option.
   
   
   SmartServer IoT OPC UA enabled status
   
   
   SmartServer Pi OPC UA enabled status
   
   

4. Click Update.
   
   
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 OPC UA end point. 
    

    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's install code.
    
    
    
    

14. Click Test Connection to test the communication between the GE Cimplicity client and the SmartServer’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.