It’s seems to have been a particularly busy week for OPC News.  Just like any other topic, sometimes the news is informative and valid, and sometimes it’s just a good headline to read in the supermarket checkout line…

The Informative Stuff

First off, I was really glad to hear that the OPC Foundation Message Board now offers an RSS feed.   Feed the need to read.

There was a success story on a recent joint project organized  by the OMAC HMI Working Group between OMAC HMI members Boeing, Okuma, and NIST to evaluate using OPC to integrate the Computer Numerical Control (CNC) to Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)  systems.  Gary mentioned it in a recent Feed Forward posting, and you can read the details in the press release.   It’s good to see examples of OPC connecting production data to high level applications such as ERP, or Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) and others.   OPC UA will really advance these types of OPC architectures.

There was a heads up on a couple of Microsoft COM/DCOM problems that could possibly affect OPC applications.  The good news is that there are patches available to solve them.  You can get the details at:

• DCOM issue for Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003:     http://support.microsoft.com/kb/924432

• COM issue for XP SP2 and Server 2003 SP1:       http://support.microsoft.com/kb/916189

You can keep up to date with these sort of things on the OPC Foundation Message Board.  Did I mention is now offers an RSS Feed?

The Sensationally Overblown Stuff.

Some of you may have come across the alarming title “Hole Found in Protocol Handling Vital National Infrastructure” at eWeek.com or PhysOrg.com.   (Dale at Digital Bond, and Dave at AFAB both had posting on it as well)

As Dale mentions in his posting on the subject, it’s full inaccuracies and hysteria.   Anyone who has been following the OPC related stuff from the recent S4 presentations know the facts.   The findings are not a ‘hole’ in the OPC protocol, they are implementation errors in some vendor’s servers.  Which already have patches available from the responsible vendors.

I’m all for increasing security in SCADA and OPC architectures, but misleading articles like this do more harm than good, as far as raising awareness goes.   If you are looking for sensational news, here are better links to follow.
They are just as news worthy:

Group Finds Toad The Size Of A Small Dog

Dog Performs ‘Heimlich’ On Choking Owner

Mouse absconds with Man’s dentures

I’m always on the look out for sites that have good Industrial Automation / OPC content to add to my RSS feed collection.   I came across the OPC section at AutomationMedia.com which has a lot of good general information and links for OPC.    The list of OPC benefits for End-users is a good start for someone pitching OPC to upper management.  It’s too bad the site doesn’t offer an RSS feed, but it is worth bookmarking.  There is a lot of stuff there.  I usually check to see what’s new with Jim Pinto from here too, which is another site I would dearly love to see with an RSS feed.  (I really am getting spoiled being spoon fed or would that be spoon Feed?)

Jim’s got a good article this month “A Real-time boost for productivity”, he doesn’t mention OPC specifically, but it’s related.  “Today, real-time applications are becoming widespread. Web services allow integration and delivery of real-time information to all parts of the enterprise. Low-cost, effective applications are available that allow cooperating suppliers and users and to monitor, analyze, optimize and adjust business processes in real-time.”

If that doesn’t just scream OPC, I don’t know what does.  Speaking of OPC articles, AutomationMedia has also posted my piece on OPC Compliance and Interoperability. (you will notice how smoothly I segued into a shameless self-promotion moment.  Hey if Walt can do it, I’m allowed at least one.. or two).  Actually I didn’t know that was in the works until I got a note from Marketing.  I really should talk to those guys more often.  I’d probably be better informed on upcoming events, and news.  Or I might just get a lot of “I’m trying to sell my 94 Camaro, can mention it on your blog?”  Maybe it would be safer if I didn’t.

Faith ‘n Begorra, me lassie child, ‘tis almost time for the wearing o’ the green!   My most favorite of all holidays, Saint Patrick’s Day is just about here.  It’s a time for gearing in green, potatoes feasts and a wee nip or eight of Guinness (it’s a double blessing when St. Paddy’s falls on a weekend!).  Beamish, Smithwicks and of course Murphy’s are also acceptable for the occasion.

Just a note for all those in the oil industry, when people say Black Gold, they are referring to Guinness, not that gooey stuff we all pay too much for at the pump.  Since Guinness was first brewed in 1759, and conventional oil wells didn’t really come about until the mid-1800’s, I’d say the stout earned the name first. 

I started this post figuring I must be able tie OPC into it some way.  I’ve already posted about beer and OPC Batch.   About 3.5 million pints of Guinness are produced every day at the St. James’ Gate Brewery.  Imagine what they could do if they were using more OPC!  Then there is the ‘black gold’ theme so I could go on about how OPC is used in the oil industry.   I subscribe to an RSS feed from Rigzone.com which has the latest news from the oil and gas industry.  I’m always amazed at the number of company names I know are using OPC products.  Shell, Exxon, Total, Statoil, SK Corp, Marathon, Santos, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Talisman…  and that’s just scanning the last couple weeks of headlines.   I still think we need to get more involved in the other ‘Black Gold’ industry.   Someone has to do all the site trips, might as well be me.  Until then, have a Happy St. Patrick’s Day, and watch out for leprechauns.

Sláinte!

The OPC UA DevCon 2007, that is.   I’m sure most people have heard about it already from the OPC Foundation or on OPCConnect.com, but in case anyone missed it, here are the details.

This year’s North American conference will be held in Scottsdale, Arizona, June 25-28th, 2007.    There was a good turn out for the last OPC UA DevCon in Munich. This year they have modified the program a bit based on feedback from past conferences, so this one aims to be even better.  There will be a welcome reception on Monday evening, two full days of UA presentations on Tuesday and Wednesday and a wrap up session on Thursday morning.   Sounds like a good time.   All you need to know to get there, is here.

Now that OPC UA is starting to gain more momentum, you’ll want to get the details on what it’s all about.  And that’s no hustle.  Don’t miss it.

I didn’t get a posting up last week, so I’ll try and make up for it this week.  Actually my last posting was supposed to go up last week, but we were having some server problems, then there was the lunar eclipse, the new OPC Server for BACnet came out, a massive snow storm hit central Ontario, and then a new dinosaur was found in Alberta.  I’m sure it’s intuitively obvious to the most causal observer how all these events prevented me from getting my postings done, so I’ll not bother explaining.

Another thing that needs little explanation is the set of surveys the OPC Foundation is conducting to help determine the direction of the OPC Compliance/Certification Committee.  As many members are probably aware, a survey was conducted last year to determine the level of support for third party testing labs.  Again there are two surveys are being distributed, one for End Users and another for OPC Vendors.

The Vendor Survey is soliciting the help of OPC Vendors in defining the direction of the OPC Compliance Working group. This Survey is also soliciting information regard the existing OPC Certification process and possible future Certification activities.  In particular this year’s survey will be used to determine the proper staffing of the 3rd party test labs expected to be open for business later this year.   

The detailed results of both surveys is confidential but you will be able to see the summary of the surveys on the OPC Foundation web site.

If you are a VENDOR of OPC Products, please complete the VENDOR survey:

If you are an END-USER of OPC Products, please complete the END-USER survey:

As will anything, you can’t complain no one is listening if you don’t let your views be known.  So, take a few minutes and complete the survey.  Since I’ve just used up all the good excuses, you really shouldn’t have any good reason not to.

We’re into March, and Daylight Savings Time is coming earlier this year thanks to the Energy Policy Act of 2005.   (for most of the US and Canada anyway.  Folks in Saskatchewan can probably skip the rest of this post).  For anyone not up to speed, starting in the spring of 2007, daylight saving time (DST) start and end dates are changing. DST dates in the United States will start three weeks earlier (2:00 A.M. on the second Sunday in March) and will end one week later (2:00 A.M. on the first Sunday in November).  In order to prevent ripping the fabric of the space-time continuum and other general chaos, Canada has decided to follow suit.

So, the million dollar question is ‘What does this mean for OPC products?’.  Well, for the actual data transfer between OPC clients and servers, it doesn’t mean anything.  All timestamps used by OPC are specified as UTC (Universal Time Coordinated), so are unaffected by timezones and daylight savings time.  However, OPC clients and other applications rarely display timestamps as UTC.  Typically the OPC client will use the system time to convert between UTC and the local time.  Therefore any application that uses the Windows system time (including OPC products) should be patched so the new DST rules are taken into account.

Those of you using Automatic Updates are probably patched already, but many OPC products are running on production machines that don’t get auto-updated.   Information on the DST patch can be found in Microsoft’s KB931836 (which supersedes and replaces update 928388, released in November 2006).   So, if you haven’t done so already, get your systems updated.  The time is quickly approaching.   (or at least due to the curvature of the space-time continuum, as three-dimensional beings, we infer the existence of the fourth dimension of time as a linear form.)  

Interestingly, a dimension does not need to be detected to exist. If we had no memory of the interval we label as “time,” our existence in space/time would still occur.  Kind of like even though you don’t remember the copious Tequila shooters and the ensuing incident with the donkey, trampoline and floral lederhosen, doesn’t mean it didn’t really happen.  Keep that in mind.  The more we know, the better decisions we’ll make.