Kepware KepServerEX v5.2: OPC UA, alarms, events, new drivers

Kepware Technologies, provider of communications for automation, released KepServerEX version 5.2, with new features including an OPC UA client and server, an alarm and event condition option (expanding on the previously delivered OPC AE interface), and updated Mettler Toledo and IDEC drivers. OPC UA is the most robust of OPC Foundation specifications, Kepware says, and KepServerEX adds an OPC ...

March 1, 2010

Kepware KepServerEX version 5.2 delivers OPC UA, alarms and event conditions, and new drivers, company says.

Kepware Technologies, provider of communications for automation, released KepServerEX version 5.2, with new features including an OPC UA client and server, an alarm and event condition option (expanding on the previously delivered OPC AE interface), and updated Mettler Toledo and IDEC drivers.

OPC UA is the most robust of OPC Foundation specifications, Kepware says, and KepServerEX adds an OPC UA Server to prior interfaces for OPC DA and OPC AE. An optional OPC UA client driver also is available. The company described the collective interfaces as a “standards-based” tunneling solution.

Tunneling solutions are a replacement for Microsoft DCOM communications in distributed OPC DA applications. More importantly for the automation industry, the OPC UA security (data encryption and authentication) makes it useful for real-time data sharing in automation related real-time business to business (B2B) applications. B2B has typically been handled on a non-real-time transactional basis with electronic data interchange (EDI) or with custom developments when real-time connectivity was required. Kepware says its off-the-shelf offering is standards based and more cost effective.

Other features include:

  • The new Alarm and Event Condition option provides ability to monitor variables and configure conditions with which to trigger alarm or event messaging. This works in conjunction with the KepServerEX OPC AE interface.

  • Additional CID (custom interface driver – OPC Toolkit) sample code in C#;

  • An updated Allen-Bradley ControlLogix driver, supporting 1,024 programs and multi-byte strings;

  • Mettler Toledo scale controls;

  • IDEC driver (expanded ranges for MicroSmart and open models); and

  • Modbus Ethernet for global settings changes at runtime.

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Kepware Technologies is a CSIA member as of 3/5/2015