Driver Demo Simulator

Introduction

Hello and welcome to a new quick start guide on how to best use Movicon.NExT™.
In this technote, we will introduce you to the Demo driver provided by Movicon.NExT platfrom and how to use it in an application.

Procedure

The Demo driver is a driver that has been made available to users by the platform and allows the value of tags to be simulated in test runs or demostrations.

Inserting the Demo driver

Like all the Movicon.NExT drivers, the Demo driver is added by using the I/O Data Server's I/O Drivers tab. To add it, make sure that the Movicon.NExT editor environment is open and that the project is open:

• Open the I/O Data Server located in the project resource tree in the Project Explorer Window.
• Select the I/O Driver tab to add the OPC UA Client driver.
• Once the I/O Driver has opened, right click on the workspace and select the Add New Driver option from the menu that appears.
• Select the Demo driver from this list that shows. Click on the arrow to go ahead and configure it.
• Leave all settings set for default in the Driver's General Settings window and proceed by clicking the arrow to go ahead to the next step.
• Leave all the values set for default in the Driver's Channel properties and go to the next step.  
• Leave all the driver's Station's properties in the configuration window set for default.
• To conclude the configuration procedure, click on Finish to insert the driver on the driver list.

Creating a tag to connect to the Demo driver

Now we will create a tag to connect to the driver. To do this:

• Open the I/O Data Server resource found in the Project Explorer Window's tree structure and select I/O Driver tab.
• Go to the Tag List by selecting appropriate I/O Data Server tab.
• Right click on the workspace and select the Add New Tag from the menu that appears.
• Configure the tag using the properties window in the following way:
• Name: Demo Tag
• Model Type: Variable
• Data Type: Int16
• Confirm the changes by clicking on the Accept Changes icon on the tag's property window toolbar at the top.
• Search for the Physical I/O Address option in the tag's Execution property group and click on the three dots within brackets on the far right to access the tag's PLC address configuration.
• Select the Demo Type from the combobox, for example Random, in the popup that shows.
• Configure the following properties in this way:
• Min Value: 0
• Max Value: 100
• Link Type: Read Only
• Station: Station0
• Click the OK button to confirm the configuration.
• Confirm the changes by clicking on the Accept Changes button on the tag's Properties window toolbar.

Once the tag has been configured, save the project by clicking on the Save All button on the Movicon.NExT editor's top toolbar.

Runtime test

Start the Movicon.NExT project's server side only by clicking on the Start Server button.
Once the Server has started up, go to the OPC UA Browser window and click on Tags.
If there are no configuration errors, you should see the value of the DemoTag tag change randomly according to the simulation selected in the Demo driver.