Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Ethernet Survey Mark Fondl of Network Vision has been a long time proponent of Ethernet as a fieldbus. His new company has networking tools. He has designed a comprehensive survey designed to find out how engineers are using Ethernet and what they need to make it work better. Check it out. 11:19:26 AM    comment []

Ethernet Webcast Using Ethernet in various aspects of automation is a hot topic. Automation World did a Webcast on security in March that was very popular. We are following it with a Webcast on June 8 at 2 pm EDT on using Ethernet as part of your I/O communication strategy. Featured are a systems integrator who has done the implementations and industrial networking guru Dick Caro. Moderator is yours truly. 10:36:06 AM    comment []

Assorted News Home for a week, finally (actually, I planned to attend the Intelligent Maintenance Systems advisory board meeting in Detroit today, but I have too much to do), I'll try to catch up on some news. Honeywell is partnering with PAS to offer the Honeywell Automation Change Manager--an electronic database management and documentation system that tracks changes to automation systems. The National Electrical Manufacturers Association's (NEMA) Lighting Systems Division has launched a new website for owners, specifiers, installers, and sellers of lighting systems. It provides comprehensive education and implementation information about lighting upgrades covered by the commercial buildings tax deduction provision of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct). In the realm of plant visibility, OSIsoft has released RtWebParts to deliver greater client-side functionality in viewing and managing operational data including, vertical trends, ad hoc SVG, direct export to Excel and support for XY plotting. This set of RtWebParts delivers additional flexibility needed for utilizing, analyzing and viewing real-time information within a browser-based environment. PLCopen TC5 - Safety Specification version 1.0 approved by BGIA. The TC5 Safety Specification provides guidelines, style guides, and basic specifications of function blocks for implementation and use in safety-related environments. For users this means an easier commissioning of their equipment. By using the specified function blocks together with the general aspects, the certification procedure of the application itself becomes much easier and faster. The BGIA, based in Sankt Augustin, Germany, is an institute for research and testing of the German Berufsgenossenschaften (BG), the institutions for statutory accident insurance and prevention in Germany. As a certification body it reviewed the PLCopen specification and confirmed that it meets the relevant aspects of IEC 61508 and the related standards and can be used as a part of a specific safety requirement specification. This will result in a certificate for PLCopen. 7:16:46 AM    comment []