Wireless 4-20mA out to Wonderware using OPC

Emerson's wireless gateway is wireless HART gateway. A gateway has 2 sides, the wireless side connects to the wireless field devices (transmitters). The wired side provides access to the data from the wireless devices.

The wired side access is either Modbus TCP (over ethernet) or Modbus RTU (over RS-485) or an OPC server with a Modbus driver. The host that is the Modbus master/client on the wired side is your Wonderware HMI software. You have an OPC server which might or might not have a Modbus driver. If it lacks a Modbus driver, you can purchase a Modbus driver option for it.

So you probably need to configure the Wireless HART gateway and assign whichever data points/tags you are interested in to specific Modbus registers. Then you configure the OPC server to read those Modbus register tags.

Then those tags and their values appear in Wonderware and you figure out what you do with it in Wonderware.

That's a great explanation! The gateway is connected to an ethernet switch. I am able to login to the gateway from any PC on the network just by typing the IP address of the gateway in any web browser.

The first step for me is to figure out where this OPC server is and how to access it(we have multiple servers). Then I can try to figure out whether it has MODBUS protocol. Is there a typical software used to configure OPC servers or can it vary? There are too many applications installed on our servers and am not sure about their purpose.

Edit: I know we don't use KEPserver

I managed to find the OPC server configuration. The software is called OPClink. There is a "topic" for it called "Provox" under topic definitions. I believe that's used for the communication between Provox and Wonderware.

It also allows me to add a new topic. Should I add one for the gateway or try to use Provox ?

Why don't you open up the existing Provox folder and see what's underneath it (OPC servers are constructed in a 'tree' style) so you can see what's involved in the Wonderware/Provox connection?

Project-wise, your task is to duplicate whatever is there for Wonderware/Provox connection for the Wonderware/EmersonWireless connection.

Then you can try adding another 'topic' and try adding whatever elements are involved.

It might be worth calling the OPC server vendor to establish how you determine whether your license includes a Modbus driver and what the server setup involves.

Windows supports multiple OPC servers, so if for some reason, your existing OPC server doesn't work out, you can buy and install some other OPC server.

What is the 4-20 ma signal coming from or controlling?

My bad. Screwed up the thread title and the opening post.

I just want to send the measurement value from wireless gateway to wonderware. That will not be a 4-20 mA output like traditional instrument.

And these wireless instruments are only being used for indication. Nothing is being controlled off of it.

Thank you. Most of the 4-20 ma I have dealt with in my career has been controlling fire or a burner of some sort. I was concerned you were trying to control something like that with wireless which can be dangerous unless you have fail safes in place.

Since you are dealing with software, is your IT dept representative assisting you? Are you recording in detailing any software installs or removals?

Be careful and good luck.

IT department don't seem to know much about OPC communication. Historically, the Electrical Engineer has been the one who took care of process side of things. Anything related to PLCs, Wonderware or something like a wireless gateway would fall under the jurisdiction of Electrical Engineer. I simply use them to install or remove software whenever I require admin rights. Especially on the server side.