The idea of connecting things other than dedicated computing devices to the Internet is by no means new. Various examples such as remotely controlled coffeemakers or refrigerators reporting their contents have circulated for several decades, but up until recently they have been little more than anecdotal in nature. However, recently there has been a clear and growing trend for ever-increasing connectivity, dubbed the Internet of Things (IoT). In essence, the idea is quite simple – connect objects and people to enable automatic communication of data without the need for human interaction. In practice of course, it requires many new technologies to implement it. Continue reading
Author Archives: Otso Palonen
Using Complex DataTypes
One of the great things in OPC UA is that when the base information models don’t fit your needs quite well enough, there are many options to extend the specifications. One common case where it’s nice to be able to extend the base spec is with Complex DataTypes. Continue reading
Developing OPC UA for Android
I thought I’d share a few pointers about developing OPC UA on Android, since our Prosys OPC UA Java SDK has supported Android from version 1.3 onwards. In recent times we’ve had a surge of interest from Android users, who have helped us in understanding some typical use cases of developers on mobile platforms. In this vein, we’ve already shared some of our Android development effort in the form of our Christmas special that was available for a limited time as a preview for our full Android client. It allowed connecting to a Beckhoff programmable logic in our office via OPC UA (the PLC is running Beckhoff’s OPC UA server for Windows CE) and controling a signal light column, which was viewable via a webcam. Continue reading