OPC Sources

Novant provides native integration with OPC UA servers, enabling secure read and write access to data points from building automation and industrial control systems. This guide explains how to configure OPC sources, define source addresses, and map OPC UA node identifiers for use within your projects.

Supported OPC Protocol

Novant supports OPC UA over TCP (opc.tcp) only. All OPC sources must expose an OPC UA server that is reachable using the opc.tcp transport protocol.

Sources

The address format for OPC sources is shown below, where path is optional:

<ip>:<port> [/<path>] #<node_id>

10.0.0.5:4840#2.100           # no path
10.0.0.5:4840#2.AHU           # no path
10.0.0.5:4840/server/#2.AHU   # server path

Points

The address format for OPC points is:

<type>.<variable>

Examples:

av.ZoneTemp
bi.FanStatus

The supported point types for OPC, along with their type prefix:

Prefix	Point Type
ai.*	Analog input (read-only)
av.*	Analog value (read/write)
bi.*	Binary input (read-only)
bv.*	Binary value (read/write)

The <variable> portion is the OPC UA BrowseName of the variable under the source and should align with the structure exposed by your OPC server’s address space. Novant uses the name portion of the BrowseName and does not include the namespace index in the point address.

For example:

OPC NodeId	OPC BrowseName	Novant Point Address
2.4512	2.ZoneTemp	av.ZoneTemp
2.FanStatus	2.FanStatus	bi.FanStatus

This approach allows source maps to be reused within OPC sources that expose a consistent internal structure. By mapping points using the OPC UA BrowseName rather than the underlying NodeId, the same source map can be applied to multiple nodes or instances that share the same variable names and hierarchy, even when the underlying NodeIds differ.