Cannot read S7-1500 tags via OPC UA with Aveva Edge Client

Hello everyone,

I'm working on a project trying to read the tags and data from S7-1500 from Aveva Edge OPC UA Client. 

OPC UA Server is correctly configured in TIA Portal beacuse the UAExpert OPC UA Client works perfectly, but Aveva Edge doesn't show the tags to watch. It shows the PLC only with information in "DataBlockInstance" and "ServerInterface". However, that information is read as 0. The connection works fine as it is able to connect propperly. I have read that with S7-1200 it is needed to manually define the ServerInterface, so I have tried it for S7-1500, but it is still at the same point.

I'm sure I'm missing something in the configuration with Aveva as UAExpert OPC UA Client works fine.

Any help?

  •  Hi  ,

    I am relatively new to Aveva Edge. But for my understanding, the workflow to set up OPC UA communication with an external OPC UA server would be

    • In Comm tab, create a OPC UA connection. In your case, the endpoint of S7-1500 OPC UA server should be used. You need to ensure the security settings are configured correctly (the same as you used for UAExpert OPC UA Client)
    • Create an OPC UA client
    • Add tags to the datasheet of this OPC UA client. I suggest to start from a simple configuration by adding a single tag and add to a screen.

    Below is the screenshot of steps in my test

    Questions for you

    • Can you confirm if the browse session in OPC UA client displays tags from the server (see the screenshot above)?
    • Do you attempt to use the encrypted OPC UA connection? If the encrypted is used, the server certificate should be trusted and automatically added to the certificate store.

    Hope this would help.

    Regards,

    Jacky

  • Hi Jacky,

    Firstly, I managed to solve the issue. I had already done what you tell me. The problem was that in the UA browser of your image Aveva Edge didn't show the tags of data block of the PLC in order to select them.  I could see the function blocks but not the data.

    I cannot tell what did I do, but I think I modified something in the properties of the device in TIA Portal, in the PROFINET interface [X1] > Ethernet Addresses (probably Subnet section, IPv4 or PROFINET) and then restarted the computer and all the services and it worked. UAExpert didn't ask for any configuration, so it took the default settings, which surprised me to not working in Aveva Edge.

    As I'm running on VM, isolated from the network, the final configuration that worked for me is (Device properties > PROFINET interface [X1] > Ethernet addreses):

    • Subnet: PN/IE_1
    • IPv4: Set IP address in the project
    • PROFINET: Generate PROFINET device name automatically

    Regarding to your questions:

    • That was the point, I couldn't see the tags and the connection was correctly established and check by Aveva Edge though, but now I can.
    • No, I tried without security in order to simplify the process.

    Thanks,

    Javier.

  • Hi Javier,

    I am glad to hear that you have sorted out the issue. Different OPC UA clients may have their own default settings. OPC UA browsing is an expensive operation. In some cases, a client may experience an operation timeout even the connection still remains. It might be a good idea to check Edge OPC UA client settings. 

    Regards,

    Jacky