Wiznet makers

Introduction

opcua_kincony_a16v3 is an open-source project that turns the KinCony KC868-A16v3 controller into an industrial OPC UA gateway—basically, it exposes the board’s I/O points (digital + analog) through the standardized OPC UA interface so SCADA/industrial clients can read and monitor them. 

Note: This is a community project and not created by WIZnet (and it’s also not an official KinCony product).

Author introduction

The project is maintained on GitHub by Aksurd, and the readme lists the maintainer as Alex D.

What is KinCony KC8680A16v3?

The KinCony KC868-A16v3 is a compact ESP32-S3 industrial controller that combines Wi-Fi with 100 Mbps Ethernet (RJ45). Notably, KinCony states they switched from the LAN8720A to the WIZnet W5500 to improve Ethernet stability.

Hardware highlights include:

• Digital I/O: 16 opto-isolated digital inputs (dry contact) + 16 MOSFET outputs (with driver IC)
• Analog: 4× analog inputs (0–5V)
• Interfaces & extras: RS485, USB-C, SD card (SPI) for logging, DS3231 RTC (battery socket), SSD1306 I2C LCD, and 3× 1-Wire GPIO
• Power & install: 12/24V DC input, DIN-rail friendly housing

What OPC UA is (and where it’s used)

OPC UA (OPC Unified Architecture) is an industrial interoperability standard (IEC 62541) designed to let machines, controllers, and software exchange data in a consistent way across vendors and platforms.

What makes it popular in factories:

• Platform-independent design that scales “from embedded controllers to cloud infrastructure.” 
• Built-in focus on security (authentication, encryption, auditing) and long-term extensibility. 
• Strong information modeling: not just raw registers—devices can expose structured objects/tags, relationships, and metadata. 

Where OPC UA shows up in real life:

• SCADA/HMI monitoring, alarms/events, and historian-style data collection
• PLC-to-software integration (MES/ERP, dashboards, analytics)
• Industrial gateways / IIoT edge devices sending plant-floor data upward (and sometimes controlling setpoints back down)

Project description (what it does)

Key points from the repo + the author’s forum write-up:

• OPC UA Server implementation using open62541 + ESP-IDF (ESP32 environment). 
• Exposes the board I/O through an OPC UA information model (goal: “IoT controller → Industrial gateway”). 
• Hardware coverage includes 16 digital I/O (via PCF8574) and 4 analog inputs. 
• Reported test result: consistent reads under ~5 ms per tag and validated with an industrial SCADA client (Simple SCADA).

Why WIZnet is used (in this hardware + project context)

The KC868-A16v3 uses the WIZnet W5500 for Ethernet—KinCony even highlights that they replaced a PHY-based solution with W5500 “more stable.”
That matters here because an OPC UA gateway needs steady, predictable Ethernet connectivity, and W5500 is a common choice when you want reliable 10/100 Ethernet over SPI without building everything from scratch.

How it can benefit

• Industrial protocol visibility: This is a clean example of “W5500 hardware in the loop” for a real industrial standard (OPC UA), not just basic TCP sockets.
• Gateway reference angle: “Low-cost controller → OPC UA industrial gateway” is a strong story for makers and light-industry users exploring Industry 4.0 pilots.