Posts Tagged ‘profinet’

At our recent General Assembly Meeting, we had attendees from very different kinds of plants. This setup some very interesting discussions and some interesting feedback on the meeting survey. On the complex side we had Ford, Audi, and VW plants, and an AGV-based amusement park ride. On the simple side we had an SI who…

1. Is your product certified? Certification is required, but some vendors try to slip through without doing the right thing. The profibus.com Product Finder shows you which products are certified, but not every vendor includes that information there. If the certification number is not there, ask to see a copy of the certificate. A certified…

In the PROFINET group on LinkedIn the question was raised: “Is PROFINET certification mandatory for a weight indicator with PROFINET IO fieldbus?” Dennis van Booma answered quickly and succinctly: “Yes, PROFINET IO devices have to be certified.” Someone else jumped in with a longer answer whose essence was to certify if your customer will let…

You’re at a party and someone asks you what you do. I actually used to fear the question, but now I have a stock answer: “I evangelize an industrial automation communication technology.” Eyes immediately glaze over; then we can talk about the weather or sports. But once, a grandniece expressed (feigned?) continued interest. So instead…

I would like to use PROFINET, but my application is an Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV). It’s battery powered with no preset track. I would like to use PROFINET, but the machine rotates and slip rings wear out too fast. If these are your applications, fear not. Since PROFINET uses plain old IEEE 802.3 Ethernet, it…

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…

Myth 3: PROFINET requires a proprietary chip. Reality: A standard Ethernet controller chip can be used for PROFINET, even for real-time data. Just add a PROFINET stack (the software that knows how to direct the PROFINET message as well as the TCP/IP traffic). In order to achieve motion control, PROFINET does require that the stack…

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…

There are some well-known facts about PROFINET.  Most people know them:  PROFINET is suitable in the three major application spaces: factory, process, and motion control.  PROFINET is fast.  PROFINET is complete.  Part of what makes PROFINET complete is “the little known things.”  Here are six features (“little things”) of PROFINET that you probably were unaware…

I enjoy corresponding with editors about all things PROFINET and PROFIBUS.  But sometimes they don’t get to use my input.  So all my stuff wound up on the editing room floor for a recent article on wireless.  To save my good stuff from extinction, here are wireless questions, asked and answered. Before you begin, remember…