How can I use DFProfi II to monitor a Gateway ?

[hurban]

Hi everybody

I am a total newby to Profibus, so excuse me please, if this is a silly question:

I have a Simatic S7 400 controlling (via Profibus) a robot application on a factory floor. The profibus network also contains a gateway slave to RS-232 which communicates with a LabVIEW RT image processing system. Basically the gateway (HMS-Anybus) is nothing more than a shared memory space which can be accessed from both the Profibus- and the RS-232 side which seems to me a very simple and efficient solution.

What I would like to do in order to investigate (existing???) timing problems in the system is the following:

I have a DF-Profi II in a PXI-Rack and would like to connect this to the Profibus network and use LabVIEW to watch/log the communication between the S7 and the RS-232 over the gateway.

Is this possible? Can anybody give me a few hints how to configure the DF-Profi II? It would have to be in "master" mode, wouldn't it ??

So that would make 2 masters (S7 + DF-Profi) on the bus then?

Any little bit of information is greatly appreciated

Thanks

HU

[Wetzer · Accepted solution]

Hello Hurban,

in my opinion, a Multimaster Network is what you need. See also this link:

http://www.automation.siemens.com/WW/forum/guests/PostShow.aspx?PageIndex=1&PostID=160971&Language=d...

Further Information on the device you intend to use can be found on this page:

http://www.comsoft.de/de/geschaeftsbereiche/industrielle-kommunikation/produkte/profibus-produkte/ba...

Best Regards!

Moritz M.

[hurban]

Thanks a lot Wetzer for the good answer!

Your link seems to refer to exactly the same problem as I have, so I will try the suggested approach. For any further in-depth questions I think I will try giving the Comsoft people a call. I also found the HMS / Anybus support in Germany really excellent - I had a few "newbie" questtions trying to get my system working and they could always solve my problem in a matter of a few minutes. So the Anybus gateway in my opinion is a really clever choice for connecting NI hardware like the EVS to the Profibus.

Many thanks again for you helpful hints

HU