PROFI classes for 2010
loading… Each year at this time, we at PTO scramble to find cities and times for the free PROFIBUS and PROFINET classes we offer throughout North America. We’ve narrowed all of them down to cities and months. Now we’re working to get final dates and confirmed venues (we have that for the first couple). We…
The Henning Unit is Offline
loading… In an energy saving move that does not require PROFINET or PROFIenergy, the Henning unit will be offline for a week or so. I just finished listening to my 464 Christmas tracks so it sounds like Christmas in Scottsdale, but at 72 degrees, it does not feel like Christmas. I’ll remedy that by spending…
So an Engineer Walks into the Science Center…
loading… I walked into the Arizona Science Center this past weekend to see the interactive robots exhibition. I took some grandkids along so I wouldn’t be conspicuous… and ran into an old friend there that the kids didn’t know: Can you name him? (I’ll provide a clue; I blogged about him before: “Klaatu barada nikto! And salad…
SPS Report 6: Walking the Show Floor
loading… Although I spent most of my time at the SPS Show in the PI booth, I did get to visit the booths of some PTO members. I already mentioned Stahl, WAGO, Siemens, and Phoenix Contact. Here are some others: HMS was showing the PROFINET relatives in their Anybus family. These included boards for PROFINET…
SPS Report 5: PROFIenergy
loading… At the show PROFINET was ubiquitous, but I think the biggest news of the fair was PROFIenergy. First, PROFINET. Here is a ten-second pan of the PROFINET wall in the PI booth. And this is the PROFINET display at the Phoenix Contact stand: Now to PROFIenergy: PROFIenergy is an application profile for PROFINET that…
SPS Report 4: PROFIsafe
loading… I do not understand the slow acceptance of functional safety over the bus in North America. PROFIsafe has been around for more than 10 years. It covers functional safety for discrete, process, and motion control applications in the same system. It works on PROFIBUS and PROFINET. It works via wire or wireless. It accepts…
SPS Report 3: IO-Link
loading… IO-Link is a fieldbus-neutral, point-to-point connection and communication method for intelligent IO. I think of it as HART for discrete because it superimposes a digital signal over the regular wiring. More information on IO-Link is at www.IO-Link.com. And for my past posts on the topic, use the IO-Link tag. IO-Link was big again this…
SPS Report 2: PI Booth Tour
loading… Here is the reception area of the booth: (click for larger view) An video introduction to the booth by PI’s Tina-Maren Weith: A video walk through the booth (it’s called a “stand” here instead of a “booth”): –Carl Henning
SPS Report 1: The Show
loading… There were not many of us from the US at the SPS/IPC/Drives Show in Nuremberg. So for the benefit of US blog readers who enjoyed Thanksgiving at home, here is the first of several reports about the show. There is no longer a comparable show in the US. Here there are many halls filled…
Trekker Tweeting Technology
loading… I’ve been using an iPhone for a couple months now and I almost love it. (The camera has no flash and it does not sync my tasks from Outlook, hence the “almost.”) At the Houston PROFIBUS class and the Seattle PROFINET class I was able to tweet throughout the day – yes, there’s an…