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IO-Link to the Rescue
Read: IO-Link to the RescueTake my old prox switch… please. And give me a new one with IO-Link. The old one just closes contacts. IO-Link, however, uses the same wires for the contacts but superimposes a digital signal over those wires. The old prox switch could be trained with a button to set the operating distance. IO-Link lets me…
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PROFINET in Food and Bev
Read: PROFINET in Food and BevWhen you think of PROFINET do you think of automotive? You should because all auto makers use PROFINET somewhere. But there are many other vertical markets where PROFINET excels. PI Middle East featured an event last year focused on food and beverage. A reminder that PROFINET (and PROFIBUS) is used there. You probably were unable…
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Hannover Messe Report: Ease of Use
Read: Hannover Messe Report: Ease of UseIf there was one big blinking neon light not to be missed from Hannover Messe this year it was: OPC UA. Like Karsten mentioned in PROFINEWS, it was everywhere -that and TSN. But what is the subtext to be gleaned behind these technologies? -EASE OF USE- This is the holy-grail for all manufacturers, and is…
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Tech Tip Roundup – Updated
Read: Tech Tip Roundup – UpdatedOne of our favorite topics is tech tips. We provide many in PROFINEWS. If you are a subscriber, you have been kept up-to-date with tech tips. If you are not a subscriber, subscribe here. Then read on for a current list (and read PROFINEWS for new ones). If you were already updated through the original…
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Completing a PROFINET Project
Read: Completing a PROFINET ProjectWhat’s the logical sequence to use to describe PROFINET? For the one-day training classes, we put everything in the context of the PROFINET of Things (IIoT and Industrie 4.0). For the PROFINET introduction webinar, we went from definition to use in application spaces (factory, process, motion) to features. For the PROFINET System Description, we moved…
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PROFINET is 100% Buzzword Compliant
Read: PROFINET is 100% Buzzword CompliantIn order for your product or technology to succeed you have to be able to “check the right boxes.” PROFINET checks all the right boxes making it 100% buzzword compliant. These are some of the buzzwords we encounter in industrial automation today: Ethernet, Real-Time, TSN, Big Data, Analytics, Industrial Internet of Things, and Industrie 4.0.…
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7 Steps to IIoT
Read: 7 Steps to IIoTI saw a recent magazine article outlining six steps to take to implement the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). It was mostly political – form a team, get buy-in from a C-level executive, etc. It’s not that I think the political approach is not valuable, but most of us live in a technical world. So…
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Worried about Bandwidth?
Read: Worried about Bandwidth?Worried about Bandwidth? Some students at our Long Beach PROFINET one-day training class were. It’s definitely something to think about. Here’s a start: There’s never a substitute for doing the engineering. PROFINET messages tend to be small. But design your topology to minimize the chance of using too much bandwidth. You can use line topology,…
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PI North America PROFINET Plugfest
Read: PI North America PROFINET PlugfestPROFINET devices and controllers successfully put through their paces SCOTTSDALE, AZ – PI North America in cooperation with the PROFI Interface Center created the first North American PROFINET plugfest, hosted by Phoenix Contact in Ann Arbor, MI on August 3-4. Thirty-five engineers from thirteen companies brought six controllers and thirty I/O devices to the plugfest.…
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The Data-Driven Factory
Read: The Data-Driven FactoryBeing in the business of moving data with PROFINET, references to the data-driven factory* appeal to me. Appealing as that is, it’s an incomplete story. Like a word-driven blog post. Random words collected do not a blog post make. Random data collected does not a factory drive. Data is the raw material. Turning it into…
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2015’s Most Popular PROFI Stuff
Read: 2015’s Most Popular PROFI StuffIt is traditional to spend time in January looking back and evaluating the preceding year. In the world of PROFINET and PROFIBUS this was the most popular stuff from 2015: Web page: PROFINET Technology Everything you need to know about PROFINET on one (very long) web page. But if you would rather download something to…
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Getting Data to IIoT
Read: Getting Data to IIoTThe Industrial Internet of Things (which is a subset of Internet of Things and a subset of Industrie 4.0) needs data. The data can be used to analyze and feed back improvements to the process. But how do you get the data? PROFINET! Yes, PROFINET is ideal for collecting data from sensors and other devices…
