The FairCom OPC UA connector service allows reading and writing data tags to and from industrial devices, such as PLCs, that use the OPC UA communication protocol. Once the FairCom server collects data from an OPC UA device, it automatically stores it for later use in analytics, forward the data to dashboards or other devices, or transform the data into a format compatible with devices that use a different protocol. This functionality turns raw data into a powerful asset that data scientists and engineers can use for a wide range of sophisticated applications that move beyond basic monitoring.

Note A tag is a named data point. For example, a tag named temperature represents the location in a  device where the temperature value can be collected from or delivered to. FairCom Edge also associates each tag with an integration table. When a data point is collected, FairCom Edge stores the tag in a newly inserted, timestamped record in the table. A tag is always stored in the record as a JSON property in the source_payload field, such as "temperature": 70. The FairCom server automatically delivers the contents of the source_payload  field as an MQTT message to the table's MQTT topic. Additionally, the tag may be optionally stored as a field in the table, such a field named temperature. This is useful for engineers who run SQL queries on the collected data for analytics.

Delivering data to OPC UA devices

Upon collection, FairCom Edge can instantly deliver the processed data to multiple destinations, such as publishing MQTT messages to various topics, sending data to REST endpoints, writing to other devices, or delivering to cloud platforms.

Because FairCom's OPC UA connector can write to devices, you can use any FairCom connector to write to an OPC UA device. 

• You can use SQL or FairCom's JSON DB API to insert a record into a table connected to an OPC UA device and that data will be written to the device. This enables data scientists and software to write enriched data back to devices to improve processes, change recipes, provide guidance to operators, troubleshoot issues, etc.
• You can take messages sent to an MQTT topic, transform them, and write their data to an OPC UA device. This empowers you to automate a factory by sending MQTT commands to devices.
• You can Modbus, EtherNet/IP, OPC UA, MTConnect, and so forth, to collect data from a device, transform the data, and write it into a table that immediately sends the data to an OPC UA device where it can change a recipe, alter recipe parameters, change configuration, etc.

Sampling of devices that support OPC UA

FairCom Edge integrates with devices that support the OPC UA protocol, including devices from the companies in the following table.