Users and Updates Rock

Two kinds of presentations rounded out the PI North America General Assembly Meeting: information updates and user stories.

Kyle McMillan showed device makers new testing that will be added to the certification test process. This covers “netload testing.” It will assure that devices withstand traffic and gracefully recover from Denial of Service attacks.

Steffen Ochsenreither provided an update on PROFIBUS PA. Version 3.02 of the specification has been around awhile, but implementing it is mandatory for new products. Here’s what it allows:

Also check out the “PROFIBUS Dialogues.”

The remaining three presentations were by users. Tyrgve Harvei of ABB showed how ABB had used PROFINET on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. Different types of oilrigs called for different applications of PROFINET.

Herman Humphrey presented PROFIBUS at Jim Beam, an Intoxicating Journey. Intoxicating because of the fumes form the process. More than 10 years ago he installed his first PROFIBUS PA instrument (a radar gauge)… using the wrong cable. It’s still working. It replaced an operator using a tape measure to determine tank level. They’ve added millions of dollars worth of instruments since then!

We concluded with PROFINET in Oil and Gas by Chase Gibbon. From the Alberta oil sands Chase showed us many different applications including this application story. Chase was the project designer and programmer.

There is one last post coming on the General Assembly Meeting – a summary of news items for the editors in attendance and maybe a little about the networking events.

–Carl Henning