Supported Operating Systems - Windows NT 4.0 SP4 and higher, Windows 2000 Pro, Server, Advanced Server, Windows XP and Windows 2003. If you are using Windows NT or XP Embedded, the OPC Data Control will work, but you need to make sure DCOM is included in your OS image.
Data Binding for OPC - ActiveX allows you to bind any OPC data point to properties on any object on a form in your application without writing any code. See how it works
Lightweight control - the first instance only uses about 240
kb and subsequent instances only need a few kb to store instance specific data. Compare to products that take 15 Mb just to install!
Runtime Free Distribution - choose your licensing option from very low cost single usage to affordable runtime/royalty-free distribution.
Easy-to-use property pages for connecting objects to OPC process data - see the property pages
Read data without writing code or with code - the choice is yours
Write data easily with just a few lines of code
Extensive Sample Code Library - no other rapid development
tool for VB to OPC connectivity offers as many sample applications as the OPC Data ActiveX control - view the full list.
FREE OPC Browser control - drop it into your VB application
and let your users browse available OPC servers, connect and browse available items, even over DCOM -- the control returns the necessary connection strings when the user clicks OK. See the browser in action.
Optional programmatic connecting of objects and OPC items
provides flexibility for those who might wish to accomplish the same tasks on the fly with their VB code
Connect to multiple OPC servers simultaneously using multiple instances of the control
DCOM support for network applications with configurable timeout on the OPC server connection when used on a remote machine to ensure robust performance.
Meaningful error messages - our GetErrorText() method lets you translate hex OPC specfication error messages to meaningful english text to help you get an idea of what went wrong when errors occur. This seems like it should be intuitive, but you'd be surprised at how many products just spit out a big number and give you no way to interpret the number in text.
Supported Product - Unlike "free wrappers and sample code for
VB" that many OPC servers give you that don't provide any technical support for the "free" code, the OPC Data ActiveX Control is supported by Software Toolbox's engineering team.
OPC Data Access Specification 2.0 and 1.0 Supported for wide interoperability with OPC Servers
Provides OPC client capability to Visual Basic without less code than other alternatives
Browse OPC servers for available tags DCOM networking support
Sample Visual Basic program and FREE simulation OPC server included
Sample Visual C++ program
Properties, Methods, & Events - the OPC Data Control provides a variety of programmatic interfaces for the programmer wanting to interface with the ActiveX with their custom code.
Properties
Methods
Events
Activated
AutoConnect
AutoConnectTimeout
DefaultDeadband
DefaultUpdateRate
MaxItemsPerOPCGroup
OPCCmdTimeout
OPCServer
OPCServerTimeout
PCName
ShowErrorBoxes
AboutBox
Connect
ConnectName
ConnectObject
Disconnect
GetErrorText
PropertyChangedName
PropertyChangedObject
ReadVariable
ReadMultiVariables
WriteVariable
WriteMultiVariables
ConnectionError
ValueChanged
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