Prerequisites

Verify License

The WinCC OPC HDA server provided in the WinCC Connectivity Pack or as part of the Open PCS 7 installation.

Connectivity Pack

On the WinCC machine, the Siemens WinCC Connectivity Pack license must be installed to access the OPC HDA server on that machine. This can be verified in the License Manager.

Open PCS 7

If Open PCS 7 is installed, configured, and licensed, the OPC HDA server on the Open PCS 7 machine can be accessed by XLReporter either on the Open PCS 7 machine itself or remotely from another machine on the network.

Verify Communication

Communication between the OPC server and an OPC client must be verified. Siemens provides an OPC HDA client to test with. Copy the SampleClientHDA.exe file from the folder Siemens\WinCC\documents\english and paste it somewhere on the machine.

Double-click SampleClientHDA.exe to start.

Set Server Name to OPCServerHDA.WinCC.1 and click Connect.

Click Browse to open the Browse Dialog window.

The easiest way to get a list of tags is to set OPCHDA_BROWSETYPE to OPCHDA_FLAT. Choose each tag to test by selecting it and clicking Add. When complete, click Done to return to the HDA Client window.

Click Show Items to display the selected tags in the left pane window. Click Validate Items then Get Item Handles to register these tags with the server.

Enter the Start Time and End Time . Note this is in UTC(Universal Time Clock) and click Read Raw. The raw values for each selected tag will appear on the left along with a timestamp and quality.

To read processed data, click Aggregates, select the appropriate aggregate (e.g., maximum, minimum, etc.). and click Read Processed. One minute calculations between the start and end time should appear for each selected tag.

If the client does not respond as described, contact Siemens technical support to troubleshoot and correct these issues.