Posted 5 Mar 2015 (edited) I am starting a project for a client and want to be able to get data from their Rockwell control systems into a VB.NET program in Visual Studio. The client has Factory Talk Transaction Manager, and other Rockwell software, which we could use to send the data to a database. However, I'd like best to grab the data directly from the PLCs into my program. I've seen websites that mention an OPCAutomation .dll that one can get if a member of OPC Foundation, but these posts were several years old, and it's very expensive to join OPC Foundation. My question is what is the best way to get data from RSLinx into a VB.NET program. Is there an accessible .dll that my client can get through their Rockwell supplier, which I could import into my VB.NET program? Or is there a better way to approach this? Edited 5 Mar 2015 by DST Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 6 Mar 2015 Don't know if this will help or not but look here.......http://www.advancedhmi.com/ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 6 Mar 2015 The Automation wrapper is quite old and no longer supported by the OPC Foundation. Your best bet is to get an OPC Client SDK that allows you to develop an OPC Client in VB.Net or C#. There are several of them out there. ClientAce from Kepware (http://www.kepware.com/Products/OPC_ClientAce.asp) Unified Automation (http://www.unified-automation.com/products/client-sdk.html) TechnoSoftware (https://opcfoundation.org/products/view/85) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 10 Mar 2015 The AdvancedHMI software is based on .NET and includes native drivers for the AB line of PLCs, so it does not require RSLinx. The drivers are designed to be very easy for reading data from a PLC, much easier than OPC. If you wanted to use RSlinx or any other OPC driver, there is also an OpcDaCom driver that tremendously simplfies reading data via OPC. There is a quick start guide on the main web site that will get you up and running in just a few minutes. The base package is free without limitations. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites