Ethernet Is the Industrial Network of the Future
My blog post last month about market shares triggered Gary Mintchell to comment on his Feed Forward blog. That started a discussion that is worth following: Ethernet in Manufacturing and Automation. –Carl Henning
Read MoreWireless Distance to Nashville
In Nashville, I did not answer a question adequately about the ranges for various wireless technologies according to a comment on one Course Evaluation. Let me remedy that here: The expected distance for the various IEEE802.11 variants (a, b, g, and n) is 100 meters but that will vary based on the antenna used and…
Read MoreTopology: Chicken feet or palm trees?
OR I love some of the terminology that Ian Verhappen uses in “One Network Topology Is Not a Silver Bullet” at ControlDesign.com. But I have to correct some Industrial Ethernet misconceptions. Ian is right when he notes that the default Ethernet topology is the star… but that is only right in the office. For PROFINET…
Read MorePROFINET Uses Standard Ethernet!
Because Atlanta was our first PROFINET one-day training class of 2010, I sent out a short follow-up survey. One of the interesting comments from that survey: “I think it is important for device manufacturers to know when they can use a generic Ethernet MAC ASIC (or FPGA) and when they cannot. Don’t hide this. It…
Read MoreGreen PROFINET
Being unable to avoid leveraging St. Patrick’s Day (or at least St. Patrick’s Day ads), I have to talk about the “Saving of the Green.” Specifically, I want to talk about how PROFIenergy can help save energy costs (and reduce carbon footprints, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and generally save the planet). But since it’s hard…
Read MorePROFINET Wins, Organization Expands, PROFIenergy Products
Lots of news from PI today: PROFIBUS and PROFINET by the numbers I hate to get too wrapped up in node counts, but here are the installed nodes through 2009: PROFIBUS 31,400,000 (5,400,000 in the process industries) PROFINET 2,100,000 PROFIsafe 850,000 Press Release: Healthy growth for PROFIBUS and PROFINET The only thing these numbers really…
Read MoreFunctional Safety over the Network Webinar
We’ve shortened the PROFIsafe section of the PROFINET and PROFIBUS one-day training classes this year. So naturally we’re getting some requests to beef that up. Instead, we’ve decided to do a webinar on the topic. It’s scheduled for 2:00pm Eastern Time on April 1. You will find a little more information and a link to…
Read MorePROFINET can use a Best Buy Ethernet Switch, really?
PROFINET can use a Best Buy Ethernet Switch, really? Yes, really. At the Atlanta PROFINET one-day training class one of the attendees thought I was being “disingenuous” claiming that PROFINET can use an Ethernet switch from Best Buy. (I thought he meant I was lying, but the dictionary says that disingenuous is “lacking in candor;…
Read MoreWireless or Wireless
One of my pet peeves is lumping all wireless types together and treating them as one. Wireless is not one monolithic thing. I see four types of wireless in industrial automation: 1. Backhaul (as I think ISA characterizes it). Typically this is long distance radio bringing data from an RTU perhaps at a wellhead to…
Read MorePROFINET Data Wrangler Avatar
Many of you have seen the movie Avatar. I was a little late, but I did finally see it (and in IMAX 3D). The special effects were, of course, amazing. I was not so thrilled with the theme which was something like “Corporations, bad; primitive people, good.” But that did not stop me from staying…
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