Free Stuff — OPC Clients

This page draws together all the information we have on freely available OPC client software.

The tools which appear on this page are all supplied free of charge, and are either pre-built or supplied as ‘ready to build’ source code, or both. Some are evaluation versions, and are identified as such. They may all be downloaded from the Web.

Free OPC Clients

OPC General Test Clients

Free and easy to use OPC client. Supports OPC DA 2.0 and 1.0, and A&E. The only OPC Client we have found that supports the OPC Security 1.0 specification.

Free tool for verifying historical data through HDA, testing HDA servers, and troubleshooting connectivity to HDA servers.

Handy mobile edition of the standard Matrikon OPC Explorer that is capable of being moved from PC to PC without being installed on an actual hard drive.

DA and XML-DA OPC client, including basic trend charts. Now supports DA 3 and XML-DA 1.01. Free for non-commercial use.

OPC DA 2.0 (and 1.0) browser and client utilities. Data Access Client subscribes to the first 100 server tags it finds and continuously displays updates of their values.

Free GUI clients offering simultaneous connection to multiple servers.

Demo version of a Data Access 2.0 diagnostic client. Allows live linking to other applications (e.g. Microsoft Excel) via a simple Copy and Paste operation, plus bridging between two servers.

OPC test client, originally intended for checking compatibility of servers with the company’s PID tuning product.

Free utility to help test and troubleshoot OPC servers and connections.

Visualization software for buildings and industrial plants. Free tester version has no time restriction, but is limited to 5 pages and 5 elements per page.

Simple DA client with source, demonstrating capabilities of the Prosys Sentrol rapid development framework.

Free DA client based on the same company’s Local IO product. Includes facilities for buffering, scaling and masking of tag values. Requires .NET Framework 1.1.

Industrial DOT NET

Powerful and easy to use test client. Connection Wizard allows a server connection with a group and multiple items to be established with just five mouse clicks.

OPC Data Management Clients

‘Thin’ OPC client which bridges between two OPC servers, taking data from one and writing it directly to the other. Now supports OPC DA 3.0, in addition to DA 2.0,1.0, HDA, AE

Enables easy implementation of redundancy in OPC-based systems, being designed for applications that must use redundant hardware and/or software to achieve a high degree of communication reliability.

Matrikon OPC EdgeCalc addresses the need for an industrial analytics tool that allows control automation professionals to work with all their 3rd-party data sources to perform math calculations, logic evaluations, and to put the results to immediate use in the control system and throughout the enterprise.

Time-limited version of an OPC client/server product that allows bridging between OPC servers, between PLCs and between OPC servers and PLCs. Free licensing for non-production use is available.

Time-limited demo of DA 2 and DA 3 server and client combination that supports OPC tunnelling, aggregation, and bridging. Also offers TCP and DDE client and server, plus scripted read/write connections to ODBC databases and MATLAB.

Cogent Real-Time Systems

Time-limited demo version of a Visual Basic application for bidirectional data transfer between databases and OPC servers. Source available at extra cost.

Open Automation Software

Enables data transfer between two OPC servers using only point and click or drag/drop configuration. Provides support for data transformations. Trial version is functionally unrestricted, but limited to 30 days use. See also products from Matrikon.

Free opc client windows

Open Source C++ OPC-UA Server and Client Library

LGPL OPC-UA server and client library written in C++ and with a lot of code auto-generated from xml specification using python.

Python bindings can be found in the python directory.

• read, write, browse
• translateBrowsePathToNodeId
• DataChange Events
• Events
• Subscriptions
• complete opc-ua address space generated from xml specification
• Method call from client
• Linux and Windows(VS13) support

Work in progress

• StatusChange Events
• Filtering
• Documentation
• Automatic generation of binary protocol from OPC schema files
• • Methods on server side

Not implemented yet (patches are welcome)

• History
• Security: Authentication, Certificates handling, ..

Documentation is sparse but several examples are availables:

Example minimal client in python

Tested clients and servers with default settings

• uaexperts client application
• node-opcua (client and server tested)
• ignition server
• Beckhoff PLC (seems to be some issues, but mostly working)
• ignition open-source sdk (server tested)
• quickopc client sdk
• prosysopc demo client
• prosysopc demo server
• unified automation sdk (client and server tested)

An environment supporting c++11 is necessary: gcc-4.8+, clang 3.4 or VS2013

There is a script debian.soft in the root for installing all required soft to build all repositories.

Using GNU autotools

Boost and libxml2 are necessary

• 2 spaces not tab
• CamelCase
• Local variables start with small letter
• Global/member variables starts with capital letters
• Use provided automatic formatter (Artistic Style) by invoking ./restyle

python code and API should follows PEP8 (many places should be fixed)

Address space and most protocol code are auto-generated and should not be modified directly. Every auto-generated file starts with a mention that it should not be edited. There’s a lot of old hand written protocol code left that should use the auto-generated code. This is done by uncommenting struct names in schemas/generate_protocol.py and removing old code and files in src/protocol and include/opc/ua/protocol/

About

Open Source C++ OPC-UA Server and Client Library

Free opc client windows

Open Source C++ OPC-UA Server and Client Library

LGPL OPC-UA server and client library written in C++ and with a lot of code auto-generated from xml specification using python.

Python bindings can be found in the python directory.

• read, write, browse
• translateBrowsePathToNodeId
• DataChange Events
• Events
• Subscriptions
• complete opc-ua address space generated from xml specification
• Method call from client
• Linux and Windows(VS13) support

Work in progress

• StatusChange Events
• Filtering
• Documentation
• Automatic generation of binary protocol from OPC schema files
• • Methods on server side

Not implemented yet (patches are welcome)

• History
• Security: Authentication, Certificates handling, ..

Documentation is sparse but several examples are availables:

Example minimal client in python

Tested clients and servers with default settings

• uaexperts client application
• node-opcua (client and server tested)
• ignition server
• Beckhoff PLC (seems to be some issues, but mostly working)
• ignition open-source sdk (server tested)
• quickopc client sdk
• prosysopc demo client
• prosysopc demo server
• unified automation sdk (client and server tested)

An environment supporting c++11 is necessary: gcc-4.8+, clang 3.4 or VS2013

There is a script debian.soft in the root for installing all required soft to build all repositories.

Using GNU autotools

Boost and libxml2 are necessary

• 2 spaces not tab
• CamelCase
• Local variables start with small letter
• Global/member variables starts with capital letters
• Use provided automatic formatter (Artistic Style) by invoking ./restyle

python code and API should follows PEP8 (many places should be fixed)

Address space and most protocol code are auto-generated and should not be modified directly. Every auto-generated file starts with a mention that it should not be edited. There’s a lot of old hand written protocol code left that should use the auto-generated code. This is done by uncommenting struct names in schemas/generate_protocol.py and removing old code and files in src/protocol and include/opc/ua/protocol/

About

Open Source C++ OPC-UA Server and Client Library

Free Stuff — OPC Servers

This page draws together all the information we have on freely available OPC servers.

The tools which appear on this page are all supplied free of charge, and are either pre-built or supplied as ‘ready to build’ source code, or both. Some are evaluation versions, and are identified as such. They may all be downloaded from the Web.

Free OPC Servers

Various trial OPC Servers available for free (Modbus, DNP3, SCADA Modbus, APACS, SNMP, ..etc). Vast selection of devices, protocols and API is supported. View all OPC Servers’ categories here.

This Modbus OPC Server provides secure and reliable real-time data access between all Modbus devices and any OPC-enabled applications.

The Allen Bradley OPC Server from Matrikon OPC enables OPC access to PLC5, SLC500, Micrologix, and ControlLogix the most popular Allen Bradley PLCs.

The Siemens S7 PLC OPC Server from Matrikon OPC provides industrial strength connectivity to the S7 family of PLCs (S7-200, S7-300, S7-400, S7 1200 and S7 1500 series) via Ethernet.

Widely used OPC Simulation Server, compliant with DA 2.05, DA 3.00 and AE specifications, and also with HDA support. Watch this «How to Video» for quick setup

Time-limited versions of servers for Modicon and Allen-Bradley, supporting DA 1.0a, 2.05a and 3.0, AE 1.1 and XML-DA 1.0. Free licensing for non-production use is available.

Free simulation server, compliant with all DA standards. May be redistributed with no limitations.

Demo version of compliant DA server toolkit. Free download is restricted to 100 tags but otherwise unlimited.

Evaluation version of a combined OPC server and client package, including several I/O drivers. Very flexible, but user interface is sometimes confusing. Includes support for a proprietary protocol, offering a subset of OPC Data Access functionality, which uses XML data packets sent over HTTP.

Trial version of a revolutionary product which allows full emulation of other DA servers with no need for an underlying communications network. Invaluable for system development, configuration, and demonstration. dOPC Clone is DA 2.05a compliant.

Trial version of a DA server which monitors network status using either ICMP (Ping) or SNMP.

Two-hour trial version of an OPC server supporting DA 2, DA 3, AE and XML-DA. A wide range of protocols is offered.

Fully compliant DA 2.05a server with source, demonstrating capabilities of the Prosys Sentrol rapid development framework.

Demo version of a product which allows the user to define his/her own serial or TCP/IP protocol without programming. Also supports DDE for legacy purposes. Requires restart after 60 minutes. Now certified DA 2.05a compliant.

Rebadged version of Kepware’s KEPServerEX (above). Now DA 3.0 compliant.

In-process simulation server, supplied as an aid to compliance testing of OPC clients. Now has improved OPC Data Access 2 support and includes the updated proxy/stub DLL, as well as a simple client program (see clients).

OPC Server Demos

Restricted versions of various OPC servers, some now with DA 3 support.

OPCSvr.zip is a simulation server supporting Data Access 2. It has some useful diagnostic aids: the user may control the profiles of the simulated data points, and all OPC interface calls are displayed in a logging window. Also available is a demo server for Historical Data Access.

Various trial OPC Servers available for free (Modbus, DNP3, SCADA Modbus, APACS, SNMP, ..etc). Vast selection of devices, protocols and API is supported. View all OPC Servers’ categories here.

Our Source Code and Tools and Techniques pages carry more information on some of these tools, while our Links page offers some recommendations from third-party sites.

OPC Client

Review

Free Download

Portable program that helps you communicate with an OPC server in order to be able to receive and send data, browse servers, as well as test and troubleshoot OPC connections

OPC Client is a lightweight software application whose purpose is to help you establish a connection with an OPC server in order to receive and send data, messages and indications.

Portable utility

The tool can be run directly on your system without having to follow the steps included in an installation process. Plus, it doesn’t leave any entries in your Windows registry so you can open it without administrative privileges. You may copy it on any USB flash drive or other devices and take it with you.

Simple looks

The tool adopts a clean and intuitive layout that doesn’t hide any intricate configuration settings under its hood. Everything is kept simple and clear, so even rookies can learn to configure the program in no time.

OPC sending/receiving features

Working with this utility proves to be a child’s play, as you only need to enter the address of the remote OPC server and click on the ‘Connect’ button.

OPC Client splits the main window into several smart panes that give you control over the connection process. You can check out a list with the local OPC servers, connect to the selected server, add and read items, view server information, as well as get detailed information about each item, such as name, current value, time stamp, quality and type.

Last but not least, the application records the cycle in seconds and number of items, and lets you enter the value of the cycle duration to read/write to a database (as a multiple of 1 second), disconnect from the database, and open the log file which displays information about the entire connection process and possible errors (the log is automatically saved to plain text file format).

Conclusion

All in all, OPC Client delivers a straightforward software solution for helping you communicate with an OPC server, and is suitable for all types of users, regardless of their experience level. On the downside, it hasn’t been updated for a while so errors may appear if you run it on newer operating systems.