OPC-UA Suite

The Problem

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OPC-UA is the industry standard for machine-to-machine communication in industrial automation — but existing Node-RED OPC-UA nodes waste resources by opening a separate TCP connection per node, don’t support batch operations, and make certificate management painful. There’s a gap between what OPC-UA can do and what’s practical in a visual programming environment.

The Solution

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A modern OPC-UA suite for Node-RED that uses shared connections, batch operations, and drag-and-drop certificates — from simple tag reads to event subscriptions and embedded servers.

blanpa/node-red-contrib-opcua-suite

node-red-contrib-opcua-suite

JavaScript

2

0

What is OPC-UA?

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OPC Unified Architecture is the interoperability standard for secure, reliable data exchange in industrial automation. It’s platform-independent, vendor-neutral, and supported by virtually every major PLC, SCADA, and MES vendor.

┌──────────┐  ┌──────────┐  ┌──────────┐
│ Siemens  │  │  Beckhoff │  │   ABB    │
│   PLC    │  │   PLC    │  │   DCS    │
└────┬─────┘  └────┬─────┘  └────┬─────┘
     │             │             │
     └──────┬──────┴─────────────┘
            │    OPC-UA
     ┌──────┴──────┐
     │   Node-RED  │──→ Dashboard
     │  OPC-UA     │──→ Database
     │   Suite     │──→ Cloud/MQTT
     └─────────────┘

7 Nodes

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• opcua-endpoint — Shared connection pooling with reference counting (one TCP connection per endpoint, not per node)
• opcua-client — All-in-one node for read, write, subscribe, browse, methods, history, and discovery
• opcua-item — Visual batch operation builder through node chaining
• opcua-browser — Address space navigation with recursive traversal
• opcua-method — Method invocation with auto-detected typed arguments
• opcua-event — Event subscription for alarm conditions and custom event types
• opcua-server — Embedded OPC-UA server for testing and integration

Shared Connections

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Unlike legacy packages that open one TCP connection per node, this suite uses reference-counted connection pooling. Multiple nodes pointing to the same endpoint share a single TCP connection — automatically cleaned up when the last node closes.

Batch Operations

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Single OPC-UA service calls handle multiple variables simultaneously. Chain opcua-item nodes to visually build batch configurations:

┌──────────┐   ┌──────────┐   ┌──────────┐   ┌──────────────┐
│ item     │──→│ item     │──→│ item     │──→│ opcua-client │
│ Temp     │   │ Pressure │   │ Speed    │   │ (batch read) │
└──────────┘   └──────────┘   └──────────┘   └──────────────┘

Security

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• Drag-and-drop certificate upload in the editor
• Security modes: None, Sign, SignAndEncrypt
• Optional username/password authentication

Why OPC-UA?

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Quality

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• 120 unit tests + 36 integration tests with embedded test server
• Docker support for local development and CI
• Automatic datatype detection from JavaScript primitives
• MIT licensed