Default Variation

The DNP3 master can read and write specific data object values, also called static values, from the controller. A specific data object is addressed by its group, variation, and index.

Variation numbers are used to represent similar data in different formats and are defined in the DNP3 specification. For example, analog input data can have the following variations:
32-bit values with a flag
32-bit values without a flag
16-bit values with a flag
The default variations are specified in the
DNP3 Default Variation
table, which is available by selecting the
Default variation table
button. For more information, see the DNP Users Group website www.dnp.org/.
In the DNP3 protocol, several data types offer multiple encoding formats known as variations. The choices serve to identify attribute values, octet counts, and other formatting issues.
Groups offer a classification method for the type or types of data within a message. The group numbers are defined in the DNP3 protocol and cannot be changed.