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OPC Expert is a tool to view OPC data and troubleshoot connections.
In this tutorial we connect OPC Expert to an OPC server and trend its real-time automation data.
Let’s start OPC Expert and connect to an OPC server.
Double-click to browse this computer.
We now see 3 OPC DA servers.
Double-click to open the Kepware OPC server and establish a connection.
OPC Expert immediately checks the connection.
The green checkmark tells us everything is OK.
Double-click each branch in the browse tree to see individual items.
These "items" correspond to real measurements in the field.
Double-click to subscribe to these items and receive information about changes on the plant floor.
To trend data, we simply right-click the item of interest, and select "Trend" from the right-click menu.
OPC Expert immediately shows me the trend in real-time.
To zoom in, I click the left mouse button down and drag my mouse to the right.
The animated zoom makes it easy for me to visualize the area I selected.
When I drag the scroll bar to the left, I see historical values.
I can use my cursor to see the values at specific points in time.
Notice the trend is no longer updating because we went back in time.
So when I drag the scroll bar to the right, I see the real-time values again.
Zooming out is the opposite of zooming in.
I can click the "Zoom Out" menu option, but there is another way.
Use the left mouse button to click down, and then drag to the left.
When I raise the mouse button, OPC Expert zooms out.
So we can easily trend data from any item.
But we can even trend data from multiple items simultaneously.
Let's click back on OPC Expert.
I will adjust the windows so we have more room.
This time we will select multiple items.
By pressing the "Ctrl" key on my keyboard I can select multiple items.
Again, to trend, we simply right-click and select "Trend" from the menu.
OPC Expert now trends all items.
Remember our previous trend?
It's still here!
Let's add more trends in a different way.
Drag an item and drop it onto an existing trend.
OPC Expert adds it to the existing trend.
Now that I have two trends, I can resize them as I need.
Let's reset to clean our view.
Sometimes we want to compare several trends on a single scale.
In this case, we simply move the trends together like this.
Just drag the trends together.
I can resize if I want.
Let's get OPC Expert out of the way and we can now see both trending windows.
In this tutorial we used OPC Expert to connect to an OPC server and view real-time automation data.
We also saw OPC Expert's powerful trending capabilities.
OPC Expert is easy to use and is a favorite tool in process control and automation.
Remember, OPC Expert does not require an installation and does not make any registry changes.
Download OPC Expert and give it a try yourself!