Specify the Tags for Data Collection

About this task

If your OPC server supports hierarchical organization of tags in a tree structure, you can use the hierarchy to browse for tags and add them to the collector for data collection.

Procedure

  1. Access Historian Administrator.
  2. Select Collectors, and then select the OPC Classic DA collector instance to which you want to add tags.
    A hierarchical view of tags appears in the Browse Results section.
  3. If you want to view only the tags for which data is not collected, in the Show Only field, select Source Tags Not Collected. You can search for a tag by entering search criteria in the Source Tag Name or Description field.
  4. If you want to search by a tag name or description, enter the value in the Source Tag Name or Description field.
  5. Navigate to the node in the tree you want to browse, and then select Browse.
    Tip:
    • To browse automatically, select the Auto Browse check box. The available tags appear in the Browse Results window whenever a node is selected in the tree.
    • To show all child elements within a hierarchy, select the Show All Children check box. All tags at or below the hierarchical level of the selected node in the tree appear in the Browse Results window.
    The tags within the selected portion of the OPC server tag hierarchy appear.
    • Some OPC servers do not support data blocks with a length greater than 1. These servers display only the first item in an array instead of showing all of them. For example, an OPC server may contain 3000 analog values from datablock:1 to datablock:3000, but only datablock:1 is displayed.
    • If you want to archive data from poll records of a length greater than 1, we recommend that you use the Excel Add-In for Historian to configure a large block of tags (including the missing items), and then add the tags.
    • If you are unable to browse items containing a forward slash ( / ) in your OPC server, you may have to change the default separator in the collector configuration. To do so, modify the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Intellution, Inc\iHistorian\Services\OPCCollector\<collector interface name>\OPCBrowseTreeSep key, and change the string value to a character not available in your OPC server item IDs. Typical values include |, !, or &. Create this key if it does not exist.
    • If you are cannot browse readable items in your OPC server, you may need to change the browse access mask used by the collector. To do so, modify the registry key [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Intellution, Inc.\iHistorian\Services\OPCCollector\<collector interface name>, and add the DWORD key "OPCBrowseAccessRightsMask"=dword:00000003. Valid values are 0, 1, 2, 3 with 1 being the default. Use 0 or 3 if you are unable to browse readable items. Creating or changing the value takes effect on the next browse attempt and does not require a collector restart.
    • Some items such as unsupported data types and user-defined items in simulation servers may not be returned when you browse for tags. However, sometimes, even the items that do not appear in the search results can be added using the Add Tag Manually button.
  6. Select the tags for which you want to collect data, and then select Add Selected Tags. Collected tags will appear in black in the tag list.
    The tags are added to the collector. They appear in black text in the list of tags.