PROFINET infrastructure by design
loading… Over on the Belden blog Brian Oulton was accused of being snarky. (Actually, I’m a fan of snarky.) Anyway, in Infrastructure – More than a Big Word he said, “You’ll see a lot of discussion from Belden about industrial Ethernet infrastructure. That’s code for ‘a network you designed’ and the opposite of ‘a bunch…
Five PROFIs and Copper
loading… Off-topic warning – at least off the PROFI topic. On the engineering topic though. PI North America has five PROFIs – PROFINET, PROFIBUS, PROFIenergy, PROFIsafe, and PROFIdrive. Arizona is known for its five C’s – climate, citrus, cattle, cotton, and copper. I posted about a modern copper mine in Engineer’s Holiday. I celebrated the…
PI North America General Assembly Meeting 2012
loading… Our General Assembly Meeting was exhausting and exhilarating again this year. It was exhausting preparing and participating, but exhilarating listening to the user presenters especially. The keynote was delivered by Mike Bastian, Global Controls Manager for Ford Powertrain and represented an expanded version of the presentation he gave at the PROFINET Executive Leadership Forum. …
Strength. Scope. Power.
loading… “Strength. Scope. Power.” That’s the tagline for one of our landing pages on www.allthingsprofinet.com Each word summarizes unique benefits of using PROFINET and the differentiating features that support them. Allow me to explain. First, STRENGTH When we say “strength” we are talking about the strength of the PROFIBUS and PROFINET technologies and the international…
PROFINET Applications in Cars and Planes
loading… The automotive industry has long been a user of PROFIBUS and PROFINET. Now amusement park cars are using PROFINET, too. The last time I was at Disneyland, the new “Cars” area was under construction. Now it’s done and it uses PROFINET and PROFIsafe. The cars in the Radiator Springs Racers report their position wirelessly…
The EtherNet/IP FUD-sicle – Melted Again
loading… The EtherNet/IP folks just can’t stop talking about PROFINET… and just can’t stop getting it wrong. It’s almost like they’re deliberately misrepresenting PROFINET. The latest example is in the Industrial Ethernet Book article “Working successful motion control via standard Ethernet.” The article has no new FUD*; I’ve been calling them out on this same…
Why Aren’t More People Getting on the Fieldbus Bus?
loading… Indeed: “Why Aren’t More People Getting on the Fieldbus Bus?” as Bruce Brandt asks at Control Engineering. I would answer that with one word: “inertia.” That’s short hand for those still stuck in the hard wiring mode saying “We’ve always done it this way.” Of course, what they’re missing is improved uptime – uptime…
Intelligent Instruments Need Intelligent Work Processes
loading… Yes, intelligent instruments need intelligent work processes. That’s the position taken by Larry O’Brien and Herman Storey in the Plant Services magazine article “Power to the process.” The lament of the article is that those intelligent work processes are infrequently implemented. PROFIBUS PA, Foundation Fieldbus, and HART are the protocols named as being in…
Hanover Fair 2: How Did PROFINET Get a Speed Upgrade
loading… Three techniques are employed to give PROFINET its speed boost to a 31.25 microsecond cycle time: fast forwarding, Dynamic Frame Packing, and fragmentation. Fast Forwarding Every microsecond counts. When a PROFINET frame passes through an Ethernet switch in a linear topology, the switch examines the frame to see if it should forward it or…
Hanover Fair 2: PROFINET Speed Upgrade
loading… One of the displays in Hanover Fair’s Field Communication Lounge (described in an earlier post) showed how a new Siemens chip supported the PROFINET speed upgrade. First, a little background: The PROFINET specification that this is based on is PROFINET version 2.3 which was released in late 2010. The speed upgrade was one of…