The Basics for Running the Software Toolbox TOP Server OPC Server

Configuration Demo - The Quick Route:

The TOP Server comes with a sample simulation configuration. To open the sample:

• Click on the File Menu
• Open and in the \Program Files\Software Toolbox\TOP Server\Projects folder
• The is a file named "SIMDEMO.OPF" - this file is the saved configuration for our simulation demo.

When the file is open, the screen will appear as shown below.

You will see that there are 4 channels configured with a total of 6 devices.

In the TOP Server, a "Channel" corresponds to a communications port for serial connections or a single thread of execution for Ethernet connections. Under each channel, provided the PLC protocol being used supports multi-drop, you can have multiple Devices. A device is a PLC or piece of hardware.

If you then click on the name of any given device in the configuration - for example "Device_1" under "Channel_1", you will see that in the right hand window pane, a set of tags are shown. We have pre-configured some tags for you in this example

Valid memory addresses for the Simulation Driver:

K0 to K9999 - tags that user can read/write values to - can be configured as any memory type except Boolean. Attach a .BitNumber suffix to do a Boolean tag - for example K0.03 is the 4th bit (bits numbered 0 to 15) in the word 0 in the K memory area

R0 to R9999 - tags that user can from and we constantly update them with incrementing integer data so you have data that changes - can be configured as any memory type except Boolean. Attach a Bit Number suffix to do a Boolean tag - for example R0.03 is the 4th bit (bits numbered 0 to 15) in the word 0 in the R memory area

S0 to S999 - String tags - you can read/write strings from these tags

Ramp, Sine, Random, User - tags that can be configured to simulate data based on configuration.