Industrial Data Xchange

Sometimes the intermittent and unexplained failures of a PROFIBUS network can only be explained as one thing: "my system has caught the PROFIBUS virus! " This is how it must appear to someone who doesn't have the right tools to analyse and monitor what is going on with the network. It is important to realize is that an error, on a PROFIBUS network, does not necessarily mean a system failure. A classic statement that our PROFIBUS Engineers receive on arriving to troubleshoot a PROFIBUS network is:  "but it was running fine for all these years - why does it fail suddenly now?"   To answer that question, you can think of it this way: does a person die the moment they have a cough? Maybe a bit of a drastic analogy, but the answer is of course not!  The person will go to the doctor for a checkup, who uses his tools to listen and see what is going on. If his symptoms are left unattended, then the outlook might not be so great. PROFIBUS is robust though! You need

Certified PROFINET Engineers Course in South Africa The PROFIBUS/PROFINET Competence Centre of South Africa recently ran two Certified PROFINET Engineers in a row at Siemens South Africa. Using tools such as Netilities from PROCENTEC, the delegates were able to quickly understand the structure of their PROFINET network. They are able to configure their devices to match their setup in the controller. Configuration of the S7-1200 PROFINET controller from Siemens is done in TIA Portal. Migrating from PROFIBUS to PROFINET is covered in the training and is shown to be quite seamless with COMbricks from PROCENTEC. In addition to this, COMbricks users can permanently monitor their PROFIBUS installation. Remote access and alarms are also possible. The modular nature of COMbricks allows the user to add slave, IO, fibre optic, PA, scope and repeater modules. Tapping into the network teaches the delegates the

Choosing the right PROFIBUS cable Is the application PROFIBUS DP or PROFIBUS PA? My cable is purple, can I use it? DP cable has a 150Ω  impedance PA cable has a 100Ω  impedance RS485, CAN bus, DeviceNet and other data cables can be purple in colour but have a 120 Ω impedance So what if my cable impedance is wrong? PROFIBUS devices and their terminations are designed to match specific impedance.  Your data signal will degrade and your waveforms will be malformed. Use a test tool like PROFIBUS Troubleshooting Toolkit from PROCENTEC with built in scope function to check your signals The T1 Pepper Active Terminator matches can sort our any impedance mismatches