[00:00] In this lesson, I'll demonstrate how to create a device connection using the Legacy Allen-Bradley CompactLogix driver. This driver is used to connect to Allen-Bradley CompactLogix PLCs, up to firmware version 20.18. Allen-Bradley devices above this version can be connected to using the Allen-Bradley Logix driver, which we have a separate video on. To get started, I'll navigate to my gateway's config page, scroll down to the OPC UA section and click device connections. Then I'll click create new device. I'm going to select the Allen-Bradley CompactLogix Legacy driver since my device is below firmware version 20.18, which is listed here. Then I'll click Next. First, I'll give my connection a name, so I'll name it Legacy CompactLogix. Then I need to enter the IP address of this device, which I'll enter into the host name field here. I could create my connection now, but I'll call out a couple more connection properties here that might be relevant for you.

[01:04] Below the host name is the local address property, and this is the local address that'll be used when establishing A TCP connection. This gives an opportunity to specify an address, but leaving it blank lets the driver just pick an available address. Next, the connection path is a set of four numbers that represents a route to the device's processor. This is used when the device has a special ethernet card versus a built-in ethernet connection, or when another device is being used as a bridge. I don't need to specify a connection path for my connection, but if you do, I'll include a link underneath this video to an explanation of connection paths in our user manual that will help you. The other property of interest is the concurrent requests. This is the number of requests that Ignition will try to send the device at the same time. Increasing this can sometimes increase throughput, but increasing it too much can overwhelm the device. To finish, I'll click Create New Device. Once it's created and has finished browsing, I can view the tags by going to the OPC Client section and clicking OPC Quick Client.

[02:03] Then if I expand the folders in my OPC UA server, I'll expand the device connection I just made and now I can see the device's tags.