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PCo:


PCo is known as Plant Connectivity. This tool is used to connect different plant applications. SAP MII has a dedicated PCo connector  to communicate with PCo.

In this document we will cover

  • Save file

  • Read file

  • OPC connection


PCo Panels:


Save file via PCo:


Steps:

  • Create a folder to save file




 

  • Create a source system to save file the folder




  • Create an agent using the source system

    • Enable the checkbox Run Agent Instance as an Executable








    • Configure the Query Ports






  • Create the PCo connector at MII




  • Use PCo query to send the file




Tag store Query



Execute the query



Result:

  • File created at the source folder



Read File Via PCo:



  • Create a File monitoring source system to read the folder




  • Create an agent using the File monitoring source system

    • Subscribe File Contain and File Name






Create a notification



Subscribe the output elements



Select a destination transaction



  • Result:The destination Transaction gets executed on creation of a new file in the folder.

    Connect OPC Via PCo – Write Values in tag:



    • Create a OPC DA source system to connect KEP Wear






 

Connect OPC Via PCo – Send OPC Notification:



  • Create a OPC DA source system to connect KEP Wear




Subscribe the tags needed



Create a notification and add a trigger condition



Add the output elements



Select a destination transaction



 

Result:

On change on the values of the tag, the destination transition gets executed.

 

 

Note: When we create an agent, it creates an windows service.


OPC connection from MII



  • Create a OPC DA source system for MII


 



Configure the query Ports



Create a PCo connection in MII. * Shown above.

Create a PCo query to send data to OPC tag.

MII agent and windows Services


“Run agent instance as an executable” – In most of the implementations, we enabled this checkbox when we needed the agent to be used from an outside system like SAP MII. We also differentiated the agents by two categories:

  1. Agents will subscribe items and will send notification

  2. Agents will only work as a connector for the MII system


The agents which subscribe and notifies MII are always needed to be running to keep reading the subscribed items. Whereas for the 2nd type of agents do not have any subscription item and will only listen to the port for any incoming request. So, the second type of agents does not require to run as a service always.

We realized when we enable the “Run agent instance as an executable”, the service is in stopped condition but still working as desired.

Example Screenshots below:



 



 

 



 

After categorizing the agents as above, we saw the server resource utilization decreased comparing before when we used to create the agents by disabling “Run agent instance as an executable”.

 
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