Developing a PROFINET Product
There are so many choices of ways to add PROFINET to an automation device that it is difficult to know where to start. Where to start depends on: Existing design Type of product Quantities expected Time to market needed For a product with an existing Ethernet controller, a PROFINET software stack can be added. This…
Read MoreThe Data-Driven Factory
Being 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…
Read More2015’s Most Popular PROFI Stuff
It 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…
Read MoreGetting Data to IIoT
The 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…
Read MorePROFINET – Show Me the Money
PROFINET can help you justify your project as these features have financial rewards: Feature: proxies. Benefit: Maps legacy networks into PROFINET using an open standard. The money: no need to rip and replace. Leave your current network intact and add a proxy to integrate the devices into a new PROFINET-based controller. Gain the benefits of…
Read MorePicking PROFINET Cities
PI North America chooses 16 or 17 cities around the continent for each year’s free PROFINET one-day training classes. Here is our formerly top secret selection methodology: Never on a Monday… or Friday. Students face an uncertain start of their week so we avoid Mondays. Fridays are the days engineers scramble to finish tasks for…
Read MoreTop 5 Reasons Your PROFIBUS Network Failed
There are more PROFIBUS DP fieldbus nodes installed than any other network (by a huge margin). But that doesn’t mean there won’t be a problem with the network. The experts point to these five common problems: 1. Terminator. The number one most common problem – the cable ends at a PROFIBUS device connected with a…
Read MoreSPS/IPC/Drives 2015 – Impressions
This year’s SPS/IPC/Drives, in my humble opinion, was one of the most exciting ever. With so many important announcements going on, it seemed like a non-stop barrage of news. First was the announcement about cooperation with CC-Link IE. This cooperation is singularly about the end-users, and making their lives easier. By specifying a “coupler” to connect machines,…
Read MoreSPS/IPC/Drives 2015: the members
There were quite a few PI North America members that had tables at the booth this year at SPS 2015. Here’s a list that sponsored tables: Molex Advantech Innovasic Phoenix Contact Siemens Belden Harting Procentec Murrelektronik Hilscher Mitsubishi ProSoft Comtrol This is by no means an exhaustive list of those that supported the booth, only…
Read MoreSPS/IPC/Drives 2015 – the PI booth
This year’s theme: PROFINET – The Backbone of Industrie 4.0 See below for a collection of photos from the PI booth at SPS/IPC/Drives 2015 in Nuremberg, Germany. After moving to Hall 2 last year, again the booth was located in Hall 2. The difference was, foot traffic was much greater than in 2014. Maybe people finally…
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