PROFIBUS DP Q&A

Alex Johnson

Table of Contents General......................................................................................................................................1 Tools.........................................................................................................................................2 Cabling......................................................................................................................................3 Redundancy..............................................................................................................................5 Table of Figures Figure 1.....................................................................................................................................3 Figure 2 Typical Redundant FBM Wiring Example...............................................................3 Revision History 25 May 2006 Original Draft

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GENERAL Q: Can you provide sizing guidelines and limitations of the FBM222? The guidelines for the FBM223 are contained in the users manual for the FBM223. You may use them as a conservative guideline since the FBM222s performance will exceed that of the FBM223. In particular, the FBM222 will support 244 bytes of input and output data per slave device regarless of the number of slave devices. The sizing guidelines for the FBM222 are not available yet. Q: Are their any limitations on the DCI blocks used with the FBM222 that are different than with the FBM222? The FBM223 uses the DCI block for the control strategy. The FBM222 supports the same DCI blocks. Moreover, the FBM222 DCI block has some additional features so it is actually a superset of the FBM223 DCI block.

TOOLS Q: What tools should one have for commissioning a PROFIBUS DP segment? For wiring checkout, Id recommend the Siemens BT200. Its a battery powered (a charger is required) handheld that is designed specifically for wiring checkout. Click on this link to visit the Siemens site for PROFIBUS test equipment: PROFIBUS from Siemens For bus monitoring Id recommend a tool called ProfiTrace. Click on the link to get the US Distributor. This two items are an absolute must for commissioning/trouble shooting work. Both are in use in the IPS fieldbus lab and they work very well.

CABLING Q: Can you explain the cabling of the FBM222? A sketch would be helpful. The redundancy adapter for the FBM222 is similar to the redundancy adapter for the FBM228. This is a Type 1 cable. Since the redundancy approach is similar to the FBM228, I have included the figure of the FBM228. The redundant FBM222s will operate side by side, and there will be one Type 1 cable leaving the redundancy adapter. This means one Termination Assembly per redundant pair.

Figure 1 Figure 2 Typical Redundant FBM Wiring Example

Q: Can the TCA for the FBM223 be used with the FBM222 with the full support of the FBM223s redundancy capability? The FBM223s termination assembly will work with the FBM222 so that the termination assembly and the PROFIBUS network cabling will be preserved. Q: Are all of the PROFIBUS cable configurations shown for the FBM223 in Section 4 of B0400FE, Rev B valid for the FBM222? The supported PROFIBUS cable configurations for the FBM222 are the same as the FBM223 cable configurations listed in Section 4 of B0400FE.

Q: Please can we have details of grounding and termination requirements of the FBM222 TAs? The users manual for the FBM223 contains the grounding and termination requirements for the termination assembly of the FBM223s. These requirements are the same for the FBM222. Q: For those situations where the PROFIBUS DP needs to be extended or split (to provide redundant cables), does Invensys recommend the use of any particular make and model of repeater? No. We do understand that such devices are useful in designing systems. However, the PROFIBUS Standard recommends specifications which the repeater should meet. For this reason, we believe that there is no need for IPS to bless any particular device. Our PROFIBUS DP implementation is fully compliant to all relevant standards so there is nothing within our PROFIBUS implementation which precludes the use of splitters or repeaters. However, IPS does not recommend a particular vendor or model of repeater for PROFIBUS networks nor do we test various brands or models of repeaters for the purpose of making recommendations. Q: Do we plan to support any of the available PROFIBUS cable splitters for PROFIBUS DP wiring that provide redundant cables between the PROFIBUS master and slave? One such example is ABB RLM01. No. We do understand that such devices are useful in designing systems. However, the PROFIBUS Standard recommends specifications which the splitter should meet. For this reason, we believe that there is no need for IPS to bless any particular device. Our PROFIBUS DP implementation is fully compliant to all relevant standards so there is nothing within our PROFIBUS implementation which precludes the use of splitters or repeaters. However, IPS does not recommend a particular vendor or model of splitter for PROFIBUS networks nor do we test various brands or models of repeaters for the purpose of making recommendations. However, we do know that the ABB RLM01 splitter has been utilized successfully on various projects involving IPS personnel.

REDUNDANCY Q: Our current plan is to use the FBM222 with a spare slot next to it so that we can eventually replace them with FBM223 in a redundant configuration. Is this plan reasonable? A number of customers are implementing this approach. The PROFIBUS DP network cabling from the termination assembly to the PROFIBUS Slave devices will be preserved and will not require replacement with this approach. Also, the Termination assembly is preserved and does not require replacement. Q: Do we plan to support for redundant connections to the same device by allowing each FBM to connect to the device separately? Out PROFIBUS solution provides redundant electronics over a single cable. The redundancy is transparent to the application built upon the FBM222. However, if your goal is to create redundant cabling and if the PROFIBUS device has two ports of its own, the 100% IPS solution would be to use two independent PROFIBUS FBMs and redundant DCI blocks above them. Q: If we go with independent FBMs on independent networks to our dual ported PROFIBUS DP devices, would we use the redundant DCI blocks? This is important to know so that we can build with the correct blocks initially. Foxboro supports redundant DCI blocks for redundant measurements from different data sources. Therefore, redundant DCI blocks are independent from the communications interface module redundancy. The gist of this is that if you want dual electronics and dual cable, you would need: Two ports on each PROFIBUS DP device Two cables to the PROFIBUS DP device or devices Two independent FBM222s (or FBM223s) Redundant DCI blocks supervising the independent PROFIBUS FBMs

Q: Under what conditions will the DCI blocks switch to the backup path? Communication failures cause redundant DCI blocks to switch. Basically, any event that would mark the primary input as BAD would also trigger a switch to the alternate FBM in the DCI block. Q: When the FBM222 is used in redundant mode, are there any restrictions on the configuration of the PROFIBUS DP devices? When the FBM222 is operating in redundant mode, the only restriction on the configuration of the PROFIBUS devices is that an additional address must be left open for the redundant FBM222. This address must be the Master address plus 1 address. For example, if the master address is 1, then the tracker address must be 2. The address of the slave devices would be 3 or higher.

Q: In redundant mode, are both the A and B port available for use? The Master FBM222 contains two ports which may be used to support either of two configurations: One logical FBM222 supervising two independent PROFIBUS segments or One logical FBM222 supervising a single segment with devices split between the A and B port.

The first configuration is fairly obvious so I wont discuss it further. The second point requires some explanation. In this configuration, a range of PROFIBUS DP addresses are handled by each port. For example, port A might supervise 0 to 60 and port B might supervise devices addressed from 61 to 125. In this configuration, some performance benefit can be achieved. It should be noted that this configuration is an excellent example of the multiple master support built into the FBM222 (and 223 for that matter). Each port sees the other port as a separate master. Q: Are there any fail safe / changeover (tracker becomes master) considerations when using the FBM222? Failsafe is independent of redundancy. Switchover from the master to the tracker happens automatically.