Blog
Modbus is DEAD! Long live Modbus!
Modbus is the Grand-daddy of industrial protocols. It has been around since the mid-70s. One would think it had gone the way of the Eight-track tape by now. I have heard, 'Oh Modbus, it is dead - isn't it?' Well, No, it is not. As I have travelled around doing field...
ChatGPT, PROFIBUS and SNAP
There has been a lot of talk about ChatGPT. My colleague Cambel Lai has been playing with it, and it is certainly impressive technology. However, as others have noted, it should be used cautiously. This is especially true when applied to industrial communications. We...
The convergence of OT and IT from a Diagnostics Point of View
Chapter 1 Introduction to Diagnostics in Operational Technology Operational Technology (OT) deals with all the technology used to control a factory or process plant. In the last 30 years, it has seen three significant changes. The first was the introduction of...
The benefits of digital deployment of HART Instruments
Highway Addressable Remote Transducer (HART) has had a long history and is used extensively in process automation. In the early days of HART, the protocol was mainly used to set up instruments in a point-to-point manner using a HART Modem. Now, these HART instruments...
The HP-25 Cable tester to the Rescue!
My PROFIBUS troubleshooting tool of choice is ProfiTrace by PROCENTEC – an excellent tool. In my toolbox, I also have a cable tester called the HP-25 by HI-PORT CONTROLS in the UK. If I am working on a new segment, I will take it out and use it. However, up until now,...
Maintaining a PROFIBUS network with COMBRICKS and ProfiHubs – a Maintenance person’s dream come true!
Life as a maintenance person can be very difficult at times. They are presented with mysteries on a daily bases. One of my favorites is when there is a temporary PROFIBUS issue – you are called down to the machine but by the time you get there, everything is working...
Why use an EtherTAP & Osiris to Troubleshoot PROFINET networks
Recently, PROCENTEC released an aggregated TAP (Test Access Point) called EtherTAP for use with either Wireshark or Osiris running on Atlas or Mercury. I loved the device! It gave me the sense that I could finally see what was going on. Why did I feel this way? Before...
Report from the 2019 PROFIBUS PROFINET International Meeting in Innsbruck Austria
Being a PROFIBUS PROFINET International (PI) Competence Center (PICC) and PI Training Center (PITC) for both PROFIBUS and PROFINET means that we need to stay current on what is happening. To do this, PI has a meeting of PICC and PITC once a year, and this year it was...
Frame Prioritization within Ethernet/IP and PROFINET?
Have you ever laid up at night wondering how Ethernet/IP prioritizes their messages or even if they ever did? Well maybe I was working too hard on writing my Ethernet/IP training course, or maybe I am a bit of a geek. Probably both. At this time, I was reading a...
What do extra terminations look like on PROFIBUS PA and DP and how can they occur?
What do extra terminations look like? In both PROFIBUS DP and PA, having more than two terminations on a segment will lower the signal level. This lowers the overall robustness of the network and should be avoided. In the case of PROFIBUS PA, the signal level is...
Newsletter and Book Download
JCOM Automation Inc. produces a newsletter a few times a year updating our customers on up coming training opportunities, interesting applications and new products. Please sign up here, and you can download a free copy of ‘Catching the Process Fieldbus – An Introduction to PROFIBUS and PROFINET,’ as our thank you.
The book is co-authored by our principal engineer and owner, James Powell.
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We offer training courses!
JCOM Automation Inc. offers high-quality, hands-on training. Our courses have a lot of labs, and we have all the latest equipment, including state of the art diagnostic equipment. We offer training on; PROFIBUS, PROFINET, Ethernet IP, Modbus TCP, Modbus RTU, and HART. For a quote on a course, please contact us directly.
We are a certified training center for PROFIBUS PROFINET International for both PROFIBUS and PROFINET, which guarantees high-quality training.
