Compatibility
AutomationDirect CLICK and CLICK PLUS driver for SCADA
Two drivers, click over TCP and click-rtu over a serial line, let Nexus read CLICK and CLICK PLUS PLCs using CLICK notation.
What it connects to
The click driver talks to AutomationDirect CLICK and CLICK PLUS over TCP. click-rtu does the same over a serial line. CLICK is Modbus underneath, so these are the Modbus drivers with the CLICK address book on top.
CLICK addressing
Tags are addressed in CLICK notation, for example DS100, DF30, Y002 and C15, and Nexus translates them to Modbus registers. You do not look up the register number yourself.
The dialect is set per device, not per address. wordOrder defaults to little for CLICK, which is what the PLC expects. byteOrder and unitId work as they do on the Modbus driver.
What it refuses to do
Addresses of type X, T and CT are read-only, and Nexus refuses a write to them instead of silently dropping it. TXT, the half-register string packing, is refused as well. The manual’s reasoning is that a partial implementation would corrupt text rather than fail visibly. If you need strings from a CLICK, plan around that.
Setup in brief
Set the driver to click or click-rtu, point the endpoint at the PLC, and bind tags in Studio. Like every Nexus device, it carries a name, an endpoint, a port, a fallback pollRateMs, a timeoutMs and a reconnectDelayMs. The name is what tags refer to, so rename a device in the configuration interface rather than by hand in the file, or its tag bindings break. A device holds no address list. It polls exactly the tags bound to it, so adding a tag in Studio starts it scanning without editing the device or restarting Nexus.
The manual covers this under Devices and drivers, CLICK addressing. It lists no serial line parameters, so check those against your hardware on the trial.
Scan rates and dropped links
Scan rate comes from the tag group, not the device. A group is direct (a fixed rate), leased (quick while something is watching the tag, slow otherwise) or driven (quick while an expression is true). A fresh gateway ships with default-fast at 250 ms, default-slow at 5000 ms and default-historical at 10 s. A tag goes Stale after its rate times staleMultiplier passes without an update, and returns to Good once it is being read again. A rate faster than the device can answer does not bring data sooner; the poll just falls behind.
A device that stops answering is marked disconnected, and its tags follow the quality rules instead of freezing at their last value. Writes forwarded to a device that has since dropped are not silently discarded. The device list in the Nexus configuration section shows each device’s state, with the reason for a failure in the tooltip. The troubleshooting page covers the usual causes.
Limits
AutomationDirect Productivity and BRX (Do-more) controllers are not native drivers. They are commonly used over Modbus TCP, so check the port settings on yours and use the Modbus driver.
Licence and trial
Every driver is included in the base licence, which lists at $995. No driver is sold separately, and there is no per-protocol or per-gateway driver charge.
The free trial runs for two hours with every driver unlocked, and you can restart it as often as you like. Point it at the controller on your bench and read a tag before you decide anything.
Next step
Read a tag off your own PLC.
The trial is two hours with every driver unlocked, and restartable as often as you like. Point it at the controller on your bench before you decide anything.