PROFINET vs EtherNet/IP
First, a disclaimer, and no surprise: I may be slightly biased in favor of PROFINET. That said, I believe the following facts to be actual facts. While this post could expand to thousands of words, this will be the Readers Digest version: Organization. PI ODVA Regional Associations 27 4 Members 1,487 300 Training centers 28…
For Industrial Internet of Things Success – Standardize
Organizations create standards; users pick the winners. There are indeed many standards that can claim to support the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). Let’s consider standards in two areas: devices to controllers and controllers to computing systems. Now computing systems could be HMIs, historians, or analytics packages, but in reality probably all of the above. …
Feed Me… PROFINET Data
Audrey II in The Little Shop of Horrors demanded “Feed me!” Analytics systems today also need fed, but they need to be fed data. Enter PROFINET. As part of the Industrial Internet, PROFINET feeds data into controllers which in turn feed information (perhaps through the cloud) to historians and analytics systems. But it all starts…
A Beginner’s Guide to PROFINET
What is PROFINET? PROFINET is an industrial communication network designed for robust, deterministic data transmission in the harsh conditions of factory and process environments. It is built on Industrial Ethernet which is built on Ethernet. Ethernet is a network – an open standard defined by IEEE802.3. The standard defines what the signal looks like on…
What is the Industrial Internet of Things Continues
Last week I provided a short quiz with potential answers to the question: What is the Industrial Internet of Things? The correct answer was all of the above, but the fourth choice deserves a more detailed explanation. Here it is: Where industrial automation has been headed all along In the beginning there were manual adjustments…
PI Press Conference – SPS 2014
Wednesday morning Nov 26 at the SPS/IPC/Drives fair, PI held its annual press conference to announce the latest updates with respect to the technologies. Here are the highlights: PROFINET perfect for machine building PI (PROFIBUS & PROFINET International) is pleased with the increasing use of PROFINET in machine building, where functions for safety, diagnostics, etc.,…
General Assembly Meeting Wrap-Up
2014 General Assembly Meeting Wrap-Up Being our 20th anniversary, we set out to make this year’s Meeting a bit of a special event. From the Tuesday evening reception to the Wednesday evening boat-cruise-networking-event to the discussions during the day, all in all it was a very successful event. Industrial Internet of Things The Industrial Internet…
8 Go-To Resources for PROFINET
1. Marketing Flyer: PROFINET. A brief, high-level overview of PROFINET. Yes it has “marketing” in the title, so you can skip this one if you want to. 2. System Description: PROFINET Technology and Application. Twenty eight pages of detailed introduction to PROFINET: models and engineering, basic functions, optional functions, legacy fieldbus integration, topologies, product development…
2 PROFINET Myths and the Much Better Realities
Myth 1: PROFINET is PROFIBUS on Ethernet. Reality: Although it builds on the concepts of PROFIBUS, PROFINET is a new protocol, tailored to Ethernet capabilities. Other Industrial Ethernets have just wrapped up their old messages in a TCP/IP or UDP/IP wrapper and called it an Industrial Ethernet. PROFINET built the protocol from the ground up…
PROFIBUS PA – for Stable Process Control
What follows is an excerpt from the recently released White Paper entitled 6 Reasons to Give PROFIBUS PA Another Look. Infrastructure which delivers overall stability is indispensable in the process industry, and PROFIBUS offers this level of stability for data communications in the field and at the control station. The performance features of PROFIBUS PA,…