PXI PROFIBUS-DP : Programmatic configuration download

[Mathieu_R.]

Hello,

My customer needs to check that Profibus optional module of a Device Under Test works properly. This implies to browse all profibus data exposed by the DUT. To do so, we are using a COMSFOT PXI interface, that you can buy on NI website (Cf. https://www.ni.com/en-us/support/model.pxi-profibus.html). The Profibus test is one among others, sequenced by TestStand.

In order to get data from the DUT, I use Configurator II (COMSOFT utility) to define a master (my PXI interface) and a slave (the DUT). It works properly, I am able to retrieve data using Configurator II as well that in LabVIEW, once a configuration is downloaded to the board.

According to the GSD file, the DUT is limited to 95 bytes as input (Max_Input_Len = 95).

Issue: data that I want to browse during the test are spread out in more than 95 bytes (and more than 244 bytes allowed by PROFIBUS).

I'm looking for a way to download a configuration to the board programmatically, in order to get a fully automated test. Is this possible? How?

Best regards,

[a_clucker]

Hi Mathieu,

The ability to programmatically download a Profibus configuration from LabVIEW is not currently available. Using the Configurator to load the configuration file to the device is the method you should continue to use. Your feedback has been relayed to our development team!

Kind Regards,

Andrew

[Mathieu_R.]

Hi Andrew,

This sounds quite bad. My customer bought this board from NI (OK, it's a exactly a NI product but a COMSOFT product) and I will have to explain him that this board do not match its automated test needs ?

Okay, let' take the issue by the customer need. The tested device could be this one : DIRIS A40/A41 RS485 – PROFIBUS® DP

From page 18, the manual describes the data that are accessible through Profbus, (described as Profibus-DP Modules). the final goal is to check if data read on Profibus are consistent with injected current, voltage, frequency. Profibus data will also be compared to data accessible from other protocol (proprietary, Modbus, and so on).

How to access all of this data with the COMSOFT PXI Profibus interface ?

Thanks in advance for your advices,

[a_clucker]

Hi Mathieu,

Yes, you will use the Configurator first to setup network topology and parameters. Pre-configuration is common to many protocols - EtherCAT with its XML definition files, CAN with its database files, CANopen with SDO/PDO configuration, etc. Once you have this initial configuration complete, most other things can be done in the program you write.

As for interacting with the DIRIS device, the first question to figure out is if your PXI Profibus card will act as a master or slave on the network. Normally sensors are slaves, and control applications utilize a master to communicate with the slave.

I looked through the DIRIS document you linked, and it was unclear how a master would request any of the "module" data frames. It looks like DIRIS sends the entire "module" of data at a time (e.g. Module 1 would be 68 bytes at a time). Since this data request action is ambiguous, I'd recommend running the master or slave Profibus example (whichever makes sense for your network configuration) and see what kind of data you receive from DIRIS.

Based on what the DIRIS manual does state, I think the path forward might involve parsing the individual parameters you're interested in from the larger data packet DIRIS sends.