I´m looking for hardware description about the Fieldbus moduls, series FP-1000!

[winger]

I have problems with the communication between the mastermodul and analog-in-, digital-in and digital-out-moduls. One day the modules are working and next day, the master can´t find the digital out module. Now I want to make different measurements to find the failure and therefor I need description about the pinout and the protocol.

[jws]

If you are not using an FP-3000 (a Foundation Fieldbus device) as your network module, this question can be best answered by posting in the Fieldpoint catagory. The FP-1000 is a Fieldpoint network module and does communicate with Foundation Fieldbus devices.

[jws]

oops. Does NOT communicate w/ Foundation Fieldbus devices. Sorry.

[Aaron_G]

What module are you using? The FP-1000 is a FieldPoint Serial Network Module. It is not a Fieldbus module. The FP-300 module is a FieldPoint Fieldbus Network Module. The troubleshooting for both is quite different so please provide more information.

Regards,
Aaron

[winger]

Hi Aaron,
you be right, the modules that I used is calling FP-1000 FieldPoint Serial Network Module. And I need information about the serial bus between the different I/O modules and between the master or slave (FP-1000, FP-1001) and the different I/O modules. If possible also information about the funtionality of the GAL. In this Moment, I can´t looking for failure because I have no Information about the modules.
with best Regards

Stefan Winger

[Aaron_G]

Stefan,

The inter-module communication bus is a custom bus that was designed and patented by National Instruments. Information on the bus and the bus components is not available.

From your description, it sounds like the FP-1000 is alternately recognizing and not recognizing a FP-DO-4xx module. There may be a number of different reasons that this can occur. Without more infomation on the specifics of your set-up and wiring, I can only provide some general ideas on causes.

First of all, where is the FP-DO-4xx on the bank? Is it the last module? If so, I would suggest that you make sure that vibration and/or a bent pin in the terminal bases is not causing intermittent loss of contact with the terminal base/module. One way to test this is to send the !B command (described in the FP-1000/1001 Programmers Reference Manual, http://www.ni.com/pdf/manuals/321632b.pdf ) through HyperTerminal (or a similar utility). If the FP-1000/1001 can detect the terminal base but not the I/O module, you will get a response indicating an empty terminal base. This will help to identify where the failure is occuring. Likewise, I have to ask, how is it mounted? If you are on a DIN rail, and have not used the rail locks, the bases may not be fit together properly and we may have intermittent signals.

Another thing to look at is the wiring to the FP-DO-4xx. What do you have the FP-DO-4xx outputting to? If the loads are highly inductive, turning off an output causes back-EMF that can sometimes knock a module offline (the module does have flyback protection in it, but sometimes additional external flyback circuitry is needed). For a diagram on using external flyback protection please see: http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/3efedde4322fef19862567740067f3cc/862567530005f09e862566a900660bda?OpenDocument

Finally, how is power wired to the network module and the I/O modules. If you cascade the wiring (by jumpering the V&C terminals from one base to the next, down to the network module), you power both the FieldPoint Bank, and all of the output signals from a single power supply. The power supply must be sufficiently rated for all the FieldPoint I/O modules plus their outputs. It may be with certain outputs turned on, you overload the power supply and some/all of the modules may stop responding.
Note: This method of wiring defeats all module to module isolation.

Regards,
Aaron

[winger]

Hi Aaron,
I will try to explain my configuration. The original coverage type of the modules isn´t to use in aircraft, and that´s what we want. In aircraft we have another EMC rules, and we need to save space. The modules are to large. Therefore we have designed a new housing and a PCB with a voltage supply to compensate overvoltage. Also we have designed this new housing to change the 2mm header connectors in high quality d-sub connectors. So we build moduls with the PCB´s of National Instruments and our PCB´s. The master and slave moduls are built out of a PCB with voltage supply, to reduce the voltage and to save the circuit against overvoltage.
The modules can be mounted in rows, like the National Instruments modules, but the connectors to
interconnecting the modules are 44pol HD SUB-D connectors. Yesterday I have made measurments with the modules. The configuration is as follows. One mastermodules with FP-DO-4XX, FP-DI-3XX and at least FP-AI-1XX and a slave module without I/O modules. Sometimes if the last module is not recognized, no modules in this rows can be recognized. I can switch the power off and on and the modules are not recognized until I switch off the power and bypass the powerlines a little time and then I switch the power on. Then all of the modules are recognized. Do you have any ideas? The master modul shows a failure code (the red LED is blinking 2 times, BUS Error).

Regards,
Stefan