netPI RTE 3 and Profibus

[Kanasak]

Hi everybody,

We have several netPI RTE 3 devices for a project and the customer is asking me if the netPI can communicate with PLC on Profibus protocol. I know the communication chip is a netX 51 SoC and I saw on Hilscher website a Profibus Slave firmware for netX 51 (product NXLFW-DPS, 7427.420). Is this firmware loadable into the netPI netX Soc ? And is there a linux driver available to use it with C ? Sample code would be also very appreciate   !

Thanks all !

       Sébastien

[Armin@netPI]

Hi there,

you are right, The used netX51 on netPI is basically able to support also PROFIBUS. It is just another firrmwae that needs to be loaded into the chip.

But what is necessary to support PROFIBUS on netPI also is the PROFIBUS RS-485 physics. And this physics does not exist on netPI. It just has two Industrial Ethernet ports only as you know. What is also not possible with netX51 chip is to support Industrial Ethernet at the same time as classic fieldbus function like PROFIBUS. Only either or is possible.

In order to support PROFIBUS the concept we developed was 5 years ago when it came to netPI to support it over the netPI NPIX slot function at its bottom. There is a slot you can insert different modules. One of these modules was a PROFIBUS module that you can post-install. There is one single test board made which I have tested myself 2-3 years ago and it worked ... but this kinf of NPIX module has never become a series product because of the low demand. To be honest the only demand I had was 1 in a year maybe and this is definitively too less to bring such a module into series release state.

Sorry that I do not have better news for you. But maybe you can tell me about your quantities in relation to PROFIBUS and maybe we have to rethink our decision.

Thx
Armin

[Kanasak]

Hi there,

you are right, The used netX51 on netPI is basically able to support also PROFIBUS. It is just another firrmware that needs to be loaded into the chip.

But what is necessary to support PROFIBUS on netPI also is to have the PROFIBUS RS-485 physics. And this physics does not exist on netPI. It just has two Industrial Ethernet ports only connected to netX as you know. What is also not possible with netX51 chip is to support Industrial Ethernet at the same time as classic fieldbus function like PROFIBUS. Only either or is possible.

In order to support PROFIBUS the concept was 5 years ago when it came to netPI to support it over the netPI NPIX module slot function at its bottom. There is a slot you can insert different modules. One of these modules was a PROFIBUS module that you can post-install. There is one single test board made which I have tested myself 2-3 years ago and it worked ... but this kind of NPIX module has never become a series product because of the low demand. To be honest the only demand I had was 1 in a year maybe and this is definitively too less to bring such a module into series release state.

Sorry that I do not have better news for you. But maybe you can tell me about your quantities in relation to PROFIBUS and maybe we have to rethink our decision.

Thx
Armin

Hi Armin,

Thank you for the informations. So my understanding is it should be possible but not easy... We will have to discuss with the customer to find if there is another solution than Profibus.
Anyway, thanks for your help.

      Sébastien