Overview of OPC UA protocol for MindConnect IoT2040¶

OPC UA data parameter¶

MindConnect IoT2040 connection establishment

Due to the extensive and detailed logging, system slowdowns can occur during the connection establishment phase. It depends on the work, the device has to do.

The following image shows the data source input window for the OPC UA protocol:

overview-opcua-protocol-iot2040

For the OPCUA protocol, the data source input supports the following parameters:

Parameter	Description
Protocol	Shows the selected protocol type
Name	Name of the data source
Description	Add a description for data source
Reading Cycle	Enter a reading cycle for the data source
OPC UA Server Name	Enter the name of the OPC UA Server Name
OPC UA Server Address	Enter the OPC UA Server Address
OPC UA Server IP Address	Enter the OPC UA Server IP Address
OPC UA Authentication Type	You can choose between the following types: - NONE: No authentication enabled - BASIC: Enables the OPC UA BASIC authentication
OPC UA Security Mode	You can choose between the following modes: - NONE: No security mode - CERTIFICATE: Enables to upload a certificate in the following formats: .pfx, .pf12, .cer, .crt, .der, .p7b, .p7r, .spc
Enable OPC UA Events	You can enable the transfer and takeover of events and alarms in the OPC UA protocol to Insights Hub. Insights Hub Monitor shows all events and alarms in the "Events" extension of the agent asset. Limits: - For Nanobox the proposed limit is 25 events/alarms per second - For IoT2040 the proposed limit is 10 events/alarms per second

OPC UA Data Access Specification¶

OPC UA Data Access Specification does not specify a certain representation for OPC UA Addresses (NodeId). A NodeId is represented by a combination of:

NamespaceIndex
IdentifierType
Identifier

OPC UA Client Driver addresses have the following syntax: ns=;=.

Note

OPC browsing is not supported.

For more information refer to the table below:

Field	Description
NamespaceIndex	The index of the OPC UA Server namespace in which the address resides. If the index is 0, the entire ns=;= clause is omitted.
IdentifierType	The type of address. OPC UA supports the following four address types: i: A numeric address represented with 32-bit unsigned integer s: A string address containing characters that can be encoded using UTF-8 g: A GUID address in the format of XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX b: An opaque address (such as a byte string)
Identifier	The address that is formatted as a string. This address may be numeric, string, GUID, or opaque.

Examples NodeId¶

Below you can see examples of an OPC UA Addresses (NodeId) representation:

String:

String IdentifierType	Example
ns=[id];s=[string]	ns=5;s=Counter1

Attribute NodeId	Value NodeId
NamespaceIndex	5
IdentifierType	String
Identifier	Counter1

String for Identifier

The string you enter at the four Identifier will be case sensitive.

Numeric:

Numeric IdentifierType	Example
ns=[id];i=[number]	ns=0;i=3190 OR

Attribute NodeId	Value NodeId
NamespaceIndex	0
IdentifierType	Numeric
Identifier	3190 [BaseEventType_LocalTime]

Guid:

Guid IdentifierType	Example
ns=[id];g=[guid]	ns=1;g=0d4e10fa-b9e1-4842-bca6-887c7d8c31f0

Base64(Opaque):

Base64(Opaque) IdentifierType	Example
ns=[id];b=[base64]	ns=2;b=M/RbKBsRVkePCePcx24oRA==

Datatypes Conversion¶

The following table shows the Datatype Conversion:

IEC61131 elementary datatypes	OPC UA built-in datatypes	Industrial IoT Type
BOOL	Boolean	boolean
SINT	SByte	int
USINT	Byte	int
INT	Int16	int
UINT	UInt16	int
DINT	Int32	int
UDINT	UInt32	long
LINT	Int64	long
ULINT	UInt64	string
BYTE	Byte	int
WORD	UInt16	int
DWORD	UInt32	int
LWORD	UInt64	long
REAL	Float	double
LREAL	Double	double
STRING	String	string
CHAR	Byte	string
WSTRING	String	string
WCHAR	UInt16	int
DT DATE_AND_TIME	DateTime	n/a
DATE	DateTime	n/a
TOD TIME_OF_DAY	DateTime	n/a
TIME	Double	double

Note

“NodeID“ is not a valid part of the OPC string anymore.

OPC UA Event Type¶

You can choose default event type or one of the custom event types created in environment.

OPC UA Event Types¶

OPC UA plugins supports custom event types to be uploaded to Insights Hub. Select the correct event type from the below drop-down menu, to get those events on Insights Hub. In the dropdown menu, the events owned by the specific environment and the default event type “DataSourceEvent” is shown only.

opcuaeventypes-iot2040

The event types are summarized as below:


Data Source Event Type	It is the default event type which can collect some static fields of events from OPC UA server.
Custom Event Type	These types can be created by user/owner of environment, and they can collect both static and extra fields from OPC UA server.

A new event type must be created from “AgentBaseEvent” type with required extra fields and then, it can be selected from the event drop-down list which is shown during OPC UA server configuration.

Note

If there is no created custom event type in environment, "Data Source Event Type" will be selected by default.
Both, data source events and custom events will be uploaded to Insights Hub. They can be displayed on Insights Hub Monitor regarding to their types. For more information on displaying events, refer to Introduction to Events in documentation.

Create custom event type via API¶

It is possible to create custom event types with extra fields via Event Management API. For more information on the service, see Event Management - API Overview.

Below is the api to call using a technical user /api/eventmanagement/v3/eventTypes.

The following template shows the payload of the call:

    {
      "name": "SomeCustomEventType",
      "parentId": "core.connectivity.event.type.AgentBaseEvent",
      "ttl": 35,
      "scope": "LOCAL",
      "fields": [
                  {
                    "name": "Message",
                    "filterable": false,
                    "required": false,
                    "updatable": true,
                    "type": "STRING"
                  },
                  {
                    "name": "testField1",
                    "filterable": false,
                    "required": false,
                    "updatable": true,
                    "type": "STRING"
                  },
                  {
                    "name": "testField2",
                    "filterable": false,
                    "required": false,
                    "updatable": true,
                    "type": "STRING"
                  },
                  {
                    "name": "testField3",
                    "filterable": false,
                    "required": false,
                    "updatable": true,
                    "type": "STRING"
                  }
        ]
    }

Note

The “name” field in body must be same as the “browseName” of the field which will be collected in the OPC UA Server. It is case-sensitive.
Name for "Event Type" needs to be unique
The “type” field must be “STRING” for all data types.
The “scope” field should always be given as “Local” unless a particular reason is required to make it "Public".
The field with name “Message” is the static field and it is not included to custom event types. It is needed to be added as an extra field.
The fields Time, Severity and SourceName in the Event type are reserved fields and should not be created as extra fields.

Last update: February 16, 2024