Free Stuff - OPC Clients

OPC Explorer

DA
AE
Security

Free and easy to use OPC client. Supports OPC DA 2.0 and 1.0, and A&E. The only OPC Client we have found that supports the OPC Security 1.0 specification.

MatrikonOPC

OPC HDA Explorer

DA
HDA

Free tool for verifying historical data through HDA, testing HDA servers, and troubleshooting connectivity to HDA servers.

MatrikonOPC

OPC Explorer Mobile

DA
AE
Security

Handy mobile edition of the standard MatrikonOPC Explorer that is capable of being moved from PC to PC without being installed on an actual hard drive.

MatrikonOPC

dOPC Explorer

DA
XML DA

DA and XML-DA OPC client, including basic trend charts. Now supports DA 3 and XML-DA 1.01. Free for non-commercial use.

Kassl

OPC DA Client

DA

OPC DA 2.0 (and 1.0) browser and client utilities. Data Access Client subscribes to the first 100 server tags it finds and continuously displays updates of their values.

PowerOPC

OPC DA Explorer,
OPC AE Explorer

DA

Free GUI clients offering simultaneous connection to multiple servers.

Integration Objects

MMI OPC Explorer

DA

Very simple GUI client for browsing available Data Access servers and items.

MMI OPC

Nautsilus OPC Explorer

DA

Demo version of a Data Access 2.0 diagnostic client. Allows live linking to other applications (e.g. Microsoft Excel) via a simple Copy and Paste operation, plus bridging between two servers.

Nautsilus

OPC Test Client

DA

OPC test client, originally intended for checking compatibility of servers with the company's PID tuning product.

ExperTune

OPC Test Client

DA

Simple MDI application, with comprehensive support for the Data Access interfaces.

Rockwell Software

OPC Viewer

DA

Free utility to help test and troubleshoot OPC servers and connections.

CommServer

OPC Voyager

DA

Visualization software for buildings and industrial plants. Free tester version has no time restriction, but is limited to 5 pages and 5 elements per page.

NETxAutomation

Prosys OPC Client

DA

Simple DA client with source, demonstrating capabilities of the Prosys Sentrol rapid development framework.

Prosys

Quick Data

DA

Free DA client based on the same company's Local IO product. Includes facilities for buffering, scaling and masking of tag values. Requires .NET Framework 1.1.

Industrial DOT NET

Server Explorer

DA

Powerful and easy to use test client. Connection Wizard allows a server connection with a group and multiple items to be established with just five mouse clicks.

National Instruments

OPC Demo Client

DA
AE
XML DA

Flexible and easy to use client. Version 4.10 adds integrated XML-DA support to the existing support for DA and AE.

Softing

OPC Data Manager

DA
HDA
AE

'Thin' OPC client which bridges between two OPC servers, taking data from one and writing it directly to the other. Now supports OPC DA 3.0, in addition to DA 2.0,1.0, HDA, AE

MatrikonOPC

OPC Redundancy Broker

DA
OPC AE

Enables easy implementation of redundancy in OPC-based systems, being designed for applications that must use redundant hardware and/or software to achieve a high degree of communication reliability.

MatrikonOPC

Operational Insight Lite

DA
HDA

Free tool with a number of advanced capabilities, including trending and process mimics based on real-time and archived OPC data (DA and HDA). Requires periodic license renewal (free of charge) via Matrikon web site.

Matrikon

OPC Crosslink Suite

DA

Time-limited version of an OPC client/server product that allows bridging between OPC servers, between PLCs and between OPC servers and PLCs. Free licensing for non-production use is available.

Cyberlogic

OPC DataHub

DA

Time-limited demo of DA 2 and DA 3 server and client combination that supports OPC tunnelling, aggregation, and bridging. Also offers TCP and DDE client and server, plus scripted read/write connections to ODBC databases and MATLAB.

Cogent Real-Time Systems

OPC for DB

DA

Time-limited demo version of a Visual Basic application for bidirectional data transfer between databases and OPC servers. Source available at extra cost.

Open Automation Software

LinkMaster

DA

Demo version of comprehensive bridging product. Able to act both as OPC client and server, as well as DDE server. See also products from MatrikonOPC and Northern Dynamic.

Kepware

OPC Gateway

DA

Enables data transfer between two OPC servers using only point and click or drag/drop configuration. Provides support for data transformations. Trial version is functionally unrestricted, but limited to 30 days use. See also products from Kepware and Matrikon.

Northern Dynamic

HDA Explorer

DA
HDA

Free tool for verifying historical data through HDA, testing HDA servers, and troubleshooting connectivity to HDA servers.

MatrikonOPC

Easy OPC Trender

HDA

Free tool to transform your OPC HDA data into knowledge that can be used to improve processes and increase operational efficiency.

MatrikonOPC

OPC Client for ODBC

DA

OPC client which enables any ODBC-compliant database to exchange process data with an OPC server, using standard SQL queries.

MatrikonOPC

OPC Desktop Historian

DA
HDA

Process Historian that collects and archives time-series process data, with reporting, analysis, and viewing facilities. Efficiently stores an unlimited amount of data and an unlimited number of tags.

MatrikonOPC

Trend Historian
Trend Link

HDA

Evaluation versions of Canary Labs' trending and logging utilities. Updated versions include OPC Historical Data Access support: HDA server in Trend Historian, client in Trend Link.

Canary Labs

Oxalis

HDA

HDA client providing graphical visualization of historical data. HDA server access ceases after 30 minutes in demo version.

Bee Computing

OPC AE Explorer

DA
AE
Security

Simple and Popular free OPC client used for testing AE Servers. Comprehensive features, very easy to use. Also supports the OPC Security 1.0 specification.

MatrikonOPC

OPC AE Historian

AE

OPC A&E Historian is ideal for those who need to archive OPC Alarms and Events data and want to minimize the time, resources, and money spent on capturing and maintaining the history of their Alarms.

MatrikonOPC

TopView for OPC

DA

Evaluation download of DA 2.05 client, allowing OPC tags to be monitored for user-configured alarm conditions. Notifications may be sent by email, pager or cell phone. Voice annunciation and text-to-speech allow delivery of audible alarm messages by phone or through the computer's speakers. A Remote Viewer option allows TopView instances to be remotely monitored from a Desktop PC or Windows Mobile device.

EXELE

U.C.ME-OPC

DA

Client software for alarm notification and remote control, using a variety of wired, wireless and mobile technologies. Demo download runs for one hour before requiring restart, but otherwise unrestricted.

Control See

Excel Reporter

DA
HDA

Allows Microsoft Excel to be used as a reporting tool for data pulled from DA and HDA servers. 30-day trial version.

Matrikon Analytics

OPC Office Link

DA

Greatly simplifies the task of importing live OPC data into Office applications (e.g. Excel) and ODBC databases. Free time-limited download available for evaluation.

Rensen Information Services

OPCEx

DA

Provides an easy way to access real-time data from any OPC server via Microsoft Excel. Free trial download is available.

Resolvica

Delphi OPC Sample

DA

Our own simple console client, written in Borland Delphi. Includes Delphi conversions of all published custom OPC interfaces.

OPC Programmers' Connection

OPC DA Server Toolkit

DA

A simple but effective OPC Browser utility is provided with Northern Dynamic's toolkit download.

Northern Dynamic

OPC Enabled ActiveX Controls

DA

Gauge, Switch and Vessel controls are available, allowing connection to any OPC data source.

ICONICS

OPCX DA

DA

Demo version of an ActiveX control which aims to simplify Data Access client development.

4CE Industry

OPC Data Access Object

DA

ActiveX control. Allows limited use of custom OPC interfaces from VB client.

GE Fanuc

Simulation Server

DA
HDA
AE
Security

Fully featured Simulation Server download (see servers) includes powerful OPC Explorer client.

MatrikonOPC

IOServer

DA

Evaluation version of an OPC server which also includes client functionality. See servers for more details.

IOServer

KEPServerEX

DA

Demo server download (see servers) includes simple yet elegant OPC Quick Client.

Kepware

MBX OPC Server
DHX OPC Server

DA

Time-limited versions of servers that include the Cyberlogic OPC Client application. Free licensing for non-production use is available. See servers for more details.

Cyberlogic

OPC Simulation server and GUI client

DA

A simple GUI client, supplied with an in-process server (see servers) for testing.

SST

OPC Troubleshooting Tools

DA
HDA

Free tool for verifying OPC connectivity, finding common OPC problem areas and backup important OPC-related files.

MatrikonOPC

Command-line Client

DA

Powerful console client, supporting a full range of OPC DA operations. Great flexibility through ability to use pipes, plus CSV files as input/output.

OpenOPC

Sample Clients

DA

Advosol offers a number of test and sample clients, usually as part of a toolkit or component evaluation (requires registration). Supported specifications include DA 2, DA 3, AE, HDA and XML-DA.

Advosol

Freeware clients

DA

A range of easy freeware clients for DA, AE and HDA, plus an XML-DA test client.

Kassl

OPC console client

DA

A simple console client, including source. Supports OPC Data Access 2.

SST

OPC DataSpy

DA

Client for diagnostics and monitoring. Supports local and remote connections to DA and AE servers, and includes useful features such as a log of OPC calls. Slightly marred by an HMI which is counter-intuitive in parts.

ICONICS

OPC Proxy

DA

Gathers and caches data from multiple OPC servers in a networked environment. The data is then presented to client programs using simplified (non-OPC) COM interfaces.

New Century Technologies

Various clients

DA

ClntDemo2.zip usefully displays all OPC interface calls in a logging window. Also available are demo clients for Alarms & Events and Historical Data Access.

WinTECH Software