Using UA Expert to diagnose an OPC/UA Connection
When connecting a new machine via OPC/UA, it can be helpful to connect via a generic OPC/UA client to browse the tags and validate basic settings like IP address, username, and password before setting those in FactoryWiz. We recommend the UaExpert utility from Unified Automation. This utility is available as a free download and will be very helpful in troubleshooting any issues with your OPC/UA enabled machine.
After installing and launching UaExpert, you will be met with a window looking something like this:
Click the + icon in the toolbar to reach the Add Server dialog. On this screen you may already see your machine in the tree, but more often we have to use the option "Double click to Add Server" found in the Custom Discovery section.
On the Enter URL popup, enter the server as opc.tcp:// followed by the ip address of your machine, then click ok.
Once your machine is in the list, expand the tree next to it to find the OPC endpoint, and select one of the supported authentication methods. Below, enter the username and password you wish to use (password field becomes enabled here only if you choose to store the password).
On the main screen if you see a blank "address space" window, try clicking "Connect" from the toolbar. It is the button just to the right of the + - buttons.
At this point you should be able to browse the tree of objects. Different brands of machinery structure their tags differently, so yours may not look like this example. If you are using a type of OPC/UA server FactoryWiz has not previously connected to - we may need to help you make the software recognize the tags, which is something best handled in a support ticket. FactoryWiz will automatically recognize the tags for Siemens Sinumerik, Index, and Traub servers out of the box.
If you drag a tag from the section on the left to the data access view you can see the current value. At this point - if this is all working you have verified that your server can access the OPC UA server, that the username and password are valid, and there is data to be retrieved.
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