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MIXED ARCHITECTURE DIAGNOSTICS DOWN TO THE LAST DEVICE
What started with a request from a colleague from the support department, resulted in the development and testing of the diagnostics slave functionality of PROCENTEC’s ProfiHubs
browser all the way through the entire industrial network. The programming of the new software
P
rofiHubs. With this brand-new functionality PROCENTEC delivers
diagnostics of networks with a mixed architecture of different protocols, down to the last device. Dave van Cappelle of PROCENTEC’s
Research & Development (R&D) team explains: “With this new functionality we can track down and pinpoint occurring errors and events in an industrial network very precisely, which helps in preventing downtime. Also, the data collection from the ComBricks and ProfiHubs can be done quickly and easily by using our mobile diagnostics tablet PROCENTEC Mercury.”
RECEIVE AND READ DIAGNOSTIC DATA FROM PROFIHUBS WITH COMBRICKS A support engineer from PROCENTEC who just returned from a troubleshooting job at a water treatment plant in England requested a functionality to look even deeper into a network without having to reprogram the software of a programmable logic controller (PLC). His support job involved a very large
network that consisted of PROFIBUS and PROFINET protocols. If it would have been possible to collect data from the installed ProfiHubs through the ComBricks on this job, he would have
6 APRIL 2019 | FACTORY EQUIPMENT
been able to find the location of the corrupted cable faster than in the current situation. The R&D department immediately recognised the potential of this concept: with such a functionality industrial automation engineers and maintenance managers would save a lot of time signalling possible events and errors in their industrial networks.
COMBRICKS AND PROFIHUBS: A POWERFUL COMBINATION For many years end users around the world have been relying on PROCENTEC’s ComBricks and ProfiHubs. Therefore it was very important to develop and comprehensively test this new functionality. ComBricks make it possible to monitor
PROFIBUS and PROFINET networks 24/7. The status of the installation can be checked remotely and over Ethernet via a web browser. The ProfiHub is a multichannel network component that is used to create reliable star / tree networks and complex branches. ProfiHubs are used as signal repeaters and to segment networks, making them more stable and reliable. By combining the strengths of
ComBricks and ProfiHubs it would be possible to look through the ProfiHubs’ channels using the ComBricks web
for the ComBricks Head stations and the ProfiHubs went smoothly. With many years of working experience at PROCENTEC, the R&D team was able to complete the programming without major setbacks. Programming is one thing, but how do you know if you have thought through all possible scenarios that might occur? Dave and his team had to think of a fitting setup that would test this new functionality profoundly.
For more information please contact our UK sales manager Jonathan Machin directly on +44 (0)753 430 7696 or send an E-mail to:
jmachin@procentec.com
/ FACTORYEQUIPMENT
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