Michael Bryant introduced this issue of PROFINEWS with a hint about PI North America’s recent General Assembly Meeting (GAM). Michael Bowne in the article immediately above took the introduction to the PROFINET of Things at the GAM and distilled them into a webcast. Carl Henning in the PROFIblog is portioning out an informal reporting of the event. Here are the highlights from the meeting.
PI North America, is proud to announce the appointment of Barry Lynch, Global Marketing Director at GE's Intelligent Platforms business, to its Board of Directors. The Board voted unanimously to approve Mr. Lynch’s nomination earlier this month.
IO-Link has established itself in the market faster than almost any other communication technology. This is confirmed by the number of members in the IO-Link member community and the current node counts. Weiss Robotics was the 100th company to join 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.
We often use an age old catch phrase during our PROFINET one day classes, “But wait, there’s more!” when we get to the latter part of the day. At that time we’ve usually covered the standard PROFINET application functionality and continue talking about additional PROFINET features and options. We’ve found that most engineers and developers don’t realize what the optional features of PROFINET are and their purpose. Here is a list of those optional features and what they do.
A combined Regional PI Chairman meeting and Industry Forum has been announced for Australia. HARTING announces a North American roadshow truck to showcase connectivity solutions. Ireland held a one-day demo consisting of two sessions on PROFIBUS diagnostics.
With Certified Training available in England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, USA, and the Netherlands over the next month, there are ample opportunities to get trained on PROFIBUS, PROFINET, and IO-Link. The main trade-show for industrial automation is fast approaching at the end of November: SPS/IPC/Drives in Nuremberg, Germany. PI will again host a booth at the event, so plan on attending.
New products this month include interconnectivity devices for PROFIBUS and PROFINET from HMS, CNCs from Siemens and industrial displays from Binar with PROFINET (pictured), and gateways to EnDat from Leine & Linde and to CANopen from Helmholz.
