PROFIBUS Diagnosis via OPC

Trebing & Himstedt has added a new product to its diagnosis product family: With the OPC Server DP, all diagnosis information on PROFIBUS network stations is available via OPC standard for the first time. In any required OPC Client application, it can be displayed in a uniform, standardized way. Access via Ethernet through the ETHERNET-PROFIBUS-INTERFACE (xEPI) allows plant-wide monitoring of multi-master and multi-strand systems as well as alerting in case of failures. Information on failed devices, master system status, alarms and device diagnoses in plaintext can be integrated, and saved, in the respective systems for the purposes of maintenance, alerting and production data acquisition. In connection with active network components, the OPC Server DP also enables continuous monitoring of bus physics. "Listening" to cyclic I/O data transfer to slaves allows implementation of monitor functions and data logging in an easy way.