Free Stuff - OPC Clients

4CE Industry

OPCX DA

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

Advosol

Free Tools

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.

Bee Computing

Oxalis

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

Canary Labs

Trend Historian,
Trend Link

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.

Cogent Real-Time Systems

OPC DataHub

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.

new
Control See

U.C.ME-OPC

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.

EXELE

TopView for OPC

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.

ExperTune

OPC Test Client

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

GE Fanuc

OPC Data Access Object

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

ICONICS

OPC DataSpy

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 Enabled ActiveX Controls

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

Industrial DOT NET

Quick Data

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.

Integration Objects

OPC DA Explorer,
OPC AE Explorer

Free GUI clients offering simultaneous connection to multiple servers.

IOServer

IOServer

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

Kassl

dOPC Explorer

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

Kepware

KEPServerEX

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

Kepware

LinkMaster

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.

Matrikon

Operational Insight Lite

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.

MatrikonOPC

OPC Client for ODBC

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

MatrikonOPC

OPC Data Manager

'Thin' OPC client which bridges between two OPC servers, taking data from one and writing it directly to the other. See also products from Kepware and Northern Dynamic.

MatrikonOPC

OPC Desktop Historian

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

OPC Explorer

Comprehensive and attractive OPC client, now at version 3.0. Unusually, appears to be coded in Borland Delphi, rather than Visual C++ or Visual Basic.

MatrikonOPC

OPC Redundancy Broker

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

OPC Trender

Comprehensive yet easy to use trending tool. OPC DA is used to gather real-time data from any OPC server, while OPC HDA may also be used for historical data retrieval.

MMI OPC

OPC Explorer

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

National Instruments

Server Explorer

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.

Nautsilus

OPC Explorer

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.

NETxAutomation

OPC Voyager

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.

New Century Technologies

OPC Proxy

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.

Northern Dynamic

OPC Gateway

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

OPC DA Server Toolkit

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

OPC Programmers' Connection

Delphi OPC Sample

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

Open Automation Software

OPC for DB

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

PowerOPC

OPC Browser,
OPC Data Access Client

Simple 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.

Prosys

Prosys OPC Client

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

Rensen Information Services

OPC Office Link

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.

Resolvica

OPCEx

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

Rockwell Software

OPC Test Client

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

Softing

OPC Demo Client

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

SST

OPC console client

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

SST

OPC Simulation server and GUI client

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

WinTECH Software

Various clients

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