In the very first issue of PROFINEWS North American Edition way back in March 2005, there was a PROFINET quiz. Taking a few questions from there and adding some more allows us to present the 2016 PROFINET Quiz. Test your knowledge.

In the automation environment of today and tomorrow, end users need a system which is built with effective diagnostic capabilities and is easy to manage at both the network and application levels for minimum downtime and increased productivity. PROFINET should be your network of choice because it has best in class diagnostic mechanisms which are in short: ‘suite and simple’.

Did you know that IO-Link is backward compatible with binary sensors? The IO-Link communication interface is standardized in international standard IEC 61131-9. One of the initial goals of the multi-company standardization initiative was to create an interface that takes into consideration the existing architectures and the typical connection level in the lower field level. The point-to-point connection familiar there was simply taken over in IO-Link, complete with the standard cabling.

A ten-year old white paper entitled “A Guide to Troubleshooting PROFIBUS PA Networks” is the most downloaded document. In the guide, author James Powell promotes a systematic approach that makes network set-up and trouble-shooting easy.

When it comes to transmitting process variables, 4-20 mA is by far the most popular method. Digital fieldbuses such as PROFIBUS or PROFINET, however, are said to be more accurate and generally better than 4-20 mA. What isn’t discussed very often, however, is the extent of how much more accurate they are. This topic is the elephant in the control room.

PROFIBUS DPV1 Alarms are a special kind of extended diagnostic. Compared to normal extended diagnostics, Alarms require an additional acknowledgment “handshake” between the master (controller) PLC or DCS and the slave device.

Did you know that over 100 members now belong to the IO-Link community? IO-Link has established itself in the market faster than almost any other communication technology. At the market launch in 2009, there were 41 member companies to start. Now with the addition of Weiss Robotics in October, the 100th company has joined the member community.

Did you know that IO-Link can transmit up to 32 bytes in one cycle? The IO-Link interface standardized in IEC 61131-9 is based on simple serial data transmission via conventional connecting cables. With IO-Link, it is over exactly this cable that data packets are exchanged cyclically between the IO-Link master and an IO-Link device packed in one protocol.