HMS Profibus Master Simulator

[SteveFeeser]

I am a LabView newbie and Profibus newbie.  I will be making a test in LabView/TestStand to test our Profibus Slave communication cards.  At the present we use the HMS Profibus Master Simulator and manually test the communication to our card.  We would like to automate this process.  Do any VIs exist to use the HMS Profibus Master Simultor?

Thanks,

Steve Feeser

[Jesse_D]

Hi Steve, 

Who makes your cards?

I would proceed as: 

1) Contact the card manufacturer and see if they have a LV driver. If they don't this will be a showstopper and you may want to post an update back here so we can brainstorm solutions. 

2) Use the driver to write a test in LV. Use the LV forums or this forums for questions on this step. 

3) Modify the driver test to be run from TestStand. Use the TestStand forum for questions on this step. 

[SteveFeeser]

I contacted HMS and they said the card is made by Bihl and Wiedemann.  I looked on their website and see they have an Application Example in Microsoft Visual C 6.0 for the PROFIBUS Master Simulator. 

The file is at the bottom of this page:   http://www.bihl-wiedemann.de/en/support/downloads/application-examples.html

I am not sure what can be done with this.  And we do not have Visual C 6.0.

Thanks,

Steve Feeser

[Jesse_D]

Hi Steve, 

I am guessing this system will be feasible. Profibus is slow enough you can use labview to call into a dll that controls the card or possible use activex directly. 

At this point you may want to contact B&W, as they may be interested in helping you build the driver, otherwise just get the card working in c, then transfer it to LV through call library function nodes. 

You may consider using an alliance partner if you are in a time crunch.