I'm a ChemE student working on automating a polymer extrusion line using a Siemens TI 555 plc. We are using LabView and I have been searching for a driver for our plc for a while with no luck, so I think I will have to use the OPC server, which, according to this site, has a driver on the CD for the siemens 500 series plc's.
My question is, how does the OPC server work? Is it simply software that I install onto the pc or is it a separate piece of hardware? Is there anything I should know about, or be careful of, before I continue? At the moment, I am really pretty confused about how all this comes together, so any help or points in the right directions are appreciated!