MetaAgent® is a great CAM tool to capture various data streams from the manufacturing processes which enables you to analyze these process data using any CAM software. It allows for seamless data integration for MTConnect, NC-Link, OPC UA, and any other manufacturing standards. You can also stream your data continuously in real-time to the data services for RethinkDB, InfluxDB, Elasticsearch, Apache Kafka, and Eclipse Sparkplug B.
MetaAgent provides a rich set of plugins and gateway servers that extend the connectivity of the MTConnect agent and give you the flexibility of mixing and matching the use of any machines/devices from any standards or machine vendors.
Windows - Simply follow the installer and add MetaAgent in the system PATH for all users.MacOS- After installation, update the system PATH to include the installed binary locationMetaAgent/bin.Linux- After unpacking the content to a location, update the PATH to include the installed binary locationMetaAgent/bin.
| MetaAgent Modules |
MTConnect Agent |
Standard Interconnect |
Data Services |
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OPC UA Standard |
NC-Link Standard |
RethinkDB Realtime Database |
InfluxDB Times Series Data Platform |
Elasticsearch Platform |
Apache Kafka |
Eclipse Sparkplug B |
MQTT |
File Capture |
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| MTConnect Agent Sink Plugin | Use installed MetaAgent |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
| MTConnect Gateway | Use older MTConnect Agent before version 2.0 |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
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| MTConnect Agent Adapter Plugin | Use installed MetaAgent |
X |
X |
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|
|
|
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| MTConnect OPC UA and NC-Link Adapter | Use older MTConnect Agent before version 2.0 |
X |
X |
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|
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| OPC UA DataConnect |
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|
X |
X |
X |
X |
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| NC-Link DataConnect |
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|
X |
X |
X |
X |
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MetaAgent® comes with the latest MTConnect Agent and the egress modules that present MTConnect data to another standard like OPC UA or NC-Link or stream data directly to other data services.
The egress modules include:
opcua-sink-pluginnc-link-sink-pluginrethinkdb-sink-plugininfluxdb-sink-pluginelasticsearch-sink-pluginkafka-sink-pluginspb-sink-pluginmqtt-sink-pluginfile-capture-sink-plugin
If you cannot use the latest MTConnect Agent and have an older MTConnect Agent before version 2.0, you can use the Gateway servers that provide the same functionalities as their Sink Plugins except that they run as external processes along with any 1.4+ version of MTConnect Agents.
The gateway servers include:
MetaAgent includes added-on ingress modules that provide OPC UA and NC-Link adapter interfaces and ingest data from these standards. Additionally, it has a QIF feeder adapter plugin that automatically detects any generated QIF files and uploads them into the MTConnect asset stream.
The ingress modules include:
If you cannot use the latest MTConnect Agent and have an older installed MTConnect Agent before version 2.0, you can use the MTConnect OPCUA and NC-Link Adapters that provide the same functionalities as their Adapter Plugins except that they run as external processes along with any 1.4+ version of MTConnect Agents.
The adapters are:
OPC UA DataConnect streams data from any OPC UA servers to the data services for RethinkDB, InfluxDB, ElasticSearch, and Kafka.
NC-Link DataConnect streams data from any NC-Link servers to the data services for RethinkDB, InfluxDB, ElasticSearch, and Kafka.
For each module, example configurations for the components are included under the installation location MetaAgent/examples: