Determining Which Driver to Use

To connect a device to Plant SCADA, you will initially need to determine which driver is necessary to support communication with the I/O Server. In most cases, you can use one of the following methods:

• a native driver, engineered specifically for the device

• a generic driver, available for devices that support industry-standard protocols such as Modbus or DNP

• an OPC Server, with communication taking place via a third-party application.

Initially check if a native driver is available. To do this, go to the Supported Devices page in the Driver Reference Help and locate the device you are trying to connect to. The list is sorted alphabetically by manufacturer name.

If the device is not included on the list, consider the communication capabilities of the device to determine if it supports any industry-standard protocols, such as Modbus, DNP, COMLI or SNMP. If this is the case, you may be able to use one of the generic Plant SCADA drivers that support these standards.

Similarly, you can use OPC to connect a device to Plant SCADA, however this will require the purchase of a third party application to establish an OPC Server. If you take this approach, use an OPC Server application recommended by the manufacturer of the device you are trying to connect.

If these options do not provide an appropriate solution, you can contact Technical Support for this product.

Note: Check the Communication Drivers page at the AVEVA Knowledge and Support Center for information about driver updates and new driver pack releases.

See Also

Installing a Driver Pack