Fieldbus Design

Design segments using FieldConnex

Fieldbus allows to connect many devices on the same bus cable,
but…
• how many devices can I really connect?
• what cable should I use, and what cable distances can I really
achieve?
• what happens in case of a short circuit in the field?
• what Power Supplies and wiring blocks can I connect in
hazardous areas?
• how do I do the termination?
• and how do I document my calculations and designs?

Use the Pepperl+Fuchs Segment Checker!

 Using Segment Checker

• The Segment Checker is a software tools for design and

validation of fieldbus networks.

• The Segment Checker is a graphical design tool with report

generator.

• The validation of a Fieldbus segment includes checks like

application of bus terminators, cable distances, voltage and
current values as well as short circuit simulation checks.
 Using Segment Checker

It supports the FieldBarrier, Segment Protectors and Junction

Boxes, as well as third party equipment.
The library of instruments, wiring blocks and supplies is larger
than before and can even be extended.
In addition to that, it generates
a detailed engineering report.
 Using Segment Checker - Design

Before a segment can be validated, it needs to be designed.

Step 1:
For a mixed segment, select “Foundation Fieldbus – not
specified” when starting the project design in the Segment Editor
tab.
 Using Segment Checker - Design
Step 2: Use drag-and-drop to construct the segment.
• Host system (either single or redundant host card)
• Fieldbus Power Supply: Select HD2-FBPS-1.500 (Power Hub)
• Determine and enter the applicable cable distances.
• Select the junction box in use. This will be either Segment
Protector (Zone 2 application) or FieldBarrier (Zone 1/ Zone 0
application). Ignore the usage of regular “Junction boxes”
without electronics.
• Determine and enter the applicable cable distances.
• Add the field instruments.
• Determine and enter the applicable cable distances.
• Select termination as appropriate.
Using Segment Checker
 Using Segment Checker - Validation

The project report tab lists a result summary of the checks

performed by the software.
 Using Segment Checker - Validation

All entries must indicate “success”. If any of these entries shows

“failed”, the detailed report must be checked to find the cause of
failure. A “failed” test might cause other tests to be “skipped”.
Hence, it is important to rectify the “failed” tests so that all other
tests can be performed.
 Using Segment Checker - Report

The report should be printed, as the data listed by the report is

used to speed up troubleshooting.
The tables at the end of the report list all expected voltage levels
at the field instruments.
If the measured voltage does not comply with the calculated, the
segment has probably a wiring fault at that particular device, or a
device is faulty.
Using Segment Checker - Report

Sample Report
 Advanced Diagnostics
A single tool for efficient fieldbus practice
 Fieldbus – Enables smart supervision

Enriched plant management:

DCS
• Remote control and configuration
• Asset management
• Predictive field device maintenance and much
more…
T

T
 Fieldbus topology

Segment Protector FieldBarrier

Ex e

Ex n /
16..32V FNICO

Ex d Ex ia
(FISCO and
Entity)
230VAC
Zone 2 Zone 1 Zone 0
 Comparison: Conventional / Fieldbus

• Electrical wiring has similar issues

– loose wire strands, water ingress, faulty devices, EMC, etc..
• Bus topology connects multiple devices
– Serial communications signal
– One fault can effect several devices
• Available tools are for conventional technology
– Tools lack ability to visualize fieldbus related signals
– Locating the problem is difficult and time consuming
(many devices in one loop; interoperability)
 Fieldbus – Enables smart supervision

• Multiple devices share one cable

DCS
• Robust, fault tolerant communication
• Demands high reliability of communication

Issues with fieldbus installations:

Tools to commission, supervise and troubleshoot.
T
Tools to include the fieldbus into predictive
maintenance!

T
 Some practical cases we have seen

Improperly closed housing Error log showing

intermittent faults
Loose wire

Internally modified

Electro-magnetic interference
Faulty field device
Cable degradation
Wrong termination

Fieldbus is tolerant to certain faults. How do you find them?

In most cases communication had not failed yet.
FieldConnex Advanced Diagnostic Module

A single tool for

commissioning, monitoring,
and troubleshooting
The only tool that delivers
actionable information
 Typical problems – and how to solve them

• Tools to measure segment parameters

(voltage, current)
• Tools to measure segment health
(termination, noise)
• Tool to display EMC problems
• Tools to test communication
• Tool to measure cable degradation
over time (trending)
• Tool to visualize signal quality of
individual devices
(noise, jitter, telegram level)
• Tool to allow remote access for expert
Locating physical layer faults

Field JB FTC DCS

Bulk
24VDC

Fieldbus
Segment 4
Wiring
Block Segment 3 Single

Segment 2 FF Power redundant

H1
Supply wiring card
Segment 1
 Ideal commissioning tool

For commissioning, you need a tool that…

• verifies health condition of device, segment, and overall
installation
• verifies that there are no interoperability problems
• takes a snapshot of the healthy system for later comparison
and trending
• and is fast, effective, efficient, and easy to use
 Ideal monitoring tool

During operation, you need a tool that…

• monitors constantly the health condition of devices and the
segment
• logs all the data for trending
• alerts you about any sudden abnormal health condition
• monitors the declining health condition, and alerts you at user-
configurable alarm levels before the segment fails
• allows Internet access for a designated fieldbus expert to
evaluate your fieldbus segment remotely
• and provides all this data on your HMI
 Ideal troubleshooting tool

To troubleshoot, you need a tool that…

• pinpoints you directly to the problem without checking each
instrument one-by-one
• performs complete instead of only partial tests
• provides data that enables you to identify the kind of failure
(EMC, software, hardware, wiring, etc)
• contains measurement techniques for fieldbus experts to
trigger on seldom or intermediate problems
• allows Internet access for a designated fieldbus expert to
evaluate your fieldbus segment remotely
• and enables troubleshooting from the control room
Ideal troubleshooting tool

You need the Pepperl+Fuchs

Advanced Diagnostic Module:

A single tool for

commissioning, operation, and troubleshooting
Measurements Multi- Handheld Handheld Oscillo- Note- Advanced
meter Tester Commu- scope book Bus Diagnostic
Tools of the Trade nicator Analyzer Module
Segment voltage ● ● ● ● 9
Segment current ◙ 9
Segment noise (low freq.) ● ● ● 9
Segment noise (high freq.) ● 9
Segment signal level ● ● ● 9
Segment signal jitter ● 9
Instrument signal level = 9
Instrument signal jitter 9
Instrument noise (individual) 9
Fieldbus termination = = ● 9
Segment earth fault 9
(imbalance)
Device communication ● ● 9
Communication faults ● 9
Cable degradation (trending) 9
Device configuration ● ●
Remote access 9

● Supported = Result incomplete ◙ Requires shutdown 9 Fully supported

 Control the physical layer

• Supervision and diagnostics

– Measurements, trending, alarming
• Part of the Power Hub
• Online and in real-time
with remote access
– from the control room and
– via Internet
• Simple-to-use DTMs
– Signal measurements
– Color-coded status indicators
– Built-in oscilloscope for greatest detail
 Use Cases for Advanced Diagnostic

The Advanced Diagnostic modules could be used :

ƒ During Commissioning

ƒ During plant operation

ƒ For trouble shooting

 Physical Layer Diagnostic during “Commissioning”

• Objectives
– Fast track commissioning to reduce time and costs
– Secure segment availability and reduce maintenance costs for
plant operation

• Achievement of objectives
– Automatic evaluation and identification of problem areas with the
help of an expert system
– Automatic documentation generation including all measured
physical layer values
– Physical layer baseline values storage in the Advanced Diagnostic
Module” as input for plant operation survey
 Physical Layer Diagnostic during “Plant Operation”

• Objective
- Secure segment availability to reduce plant downtime and maintenance
cost
• Achievement of objective
- “Proactive Maintenance” due to real-time diagnostic where all
parameters that may effect the operation are monitored.
- Deviations from recorded data during commissioning will be alarmed
- Problem areas are pinpointed quickly by a PC tool reducing the time to
repair which improves system uptime and plant safety
- History function for communication and physical layer values will allow
to monitor long-term changes
- Remote access capability (Internet) will allow fieldbus experts to
evaluate a fieldbus segment remotely
 Physical Layer Diagnostic during “Trouble Shooting”

• Objective
- Identification of complex error condition where expert
knowledge is necessary as e.g. software incompatibility
between host and devices or combinations of software and
physical layer problems

• Achievement of objective
- History function for communication and physical layer values
- Build in oscilloscope with communication trigger conditions
- Remote access capability (Internet/Intranet) to allow fieldbus
experts to evaluate a fieldbus segment remotely
Physical Layer Diagnostics, details

• List of physical layer related measurements

• Bulk power health
• Segment voltage and current
• Segment unbalance (signal to earth leakage)
• Segment noise
• Device communication signal level
• Device signal polarity
• Device jitter
• …

• List of communication related measurements

• Segment life list
• Device communication error counters (CRC, pass token,
…)
 Physical Layer Diagnostics, features

• Features of the Diagnostic Module

• User-configurable warning and alarm levels for long-term diagnostic
• Alarming with time stamping
• History/trending for all measured values stored in the diagnostic module
• DCS system integration with OPC

• Features of the PC Tool

• Setup wizard for easy warning and alarm level definition
• Documentation wizard, file or print out
• Expert system wizard to isolate cause of deviation or errors
• Build in fieldbus oscilloscope
 Physical Layer Diagnostic, expert system

• The expert system allows to pinpoint to an error cause evaluating all

measured physical layer values
• Detectable error causes could be
– Signal to ground fault , e.g. water ingress , loose wire strands
– Signal to signal fault , e.g. water ingress , loose wire strands
– Signal resistive fault, e.g. resistance in connectors, loose wire
strands
– Termination failure or drift
– Long term drift of physical layer components of devices
– Noise and crosstalk due to earth loops and radio interference
– Communication errors due to software incompatibility
 Architecture, Diagnostic Bus

COM Converter, max. 255

RS-485 to Ethernet
RS-485 to USB
...

FDT/DTM based
PC Tool Ethernet Switch

RS-485

max. 31
backplanes

Diagnostic Module
 Ideal commissioning tool

• Simple cable checkout

– Accurate voltage level
– Proper termination
– Isolation to ground
– Polarity of connection
• Check for interoperability issues

per device and segment …

 Ideal commissioning tool

• Accelerated field device validation

– Signal quality and strength
– Jitter

per device and segment …

 Snapshot Functionality

• Automatically generated
documentation
• Baseline report for online
comparison and trending
• Live supervision during
operation
 Ideal supervision tool

Predicting data availability

keeps the plant performing…
• Monitor constant health condition of
– Device communication statistics
– Physical layer of the segment
• Log all measurement data for trending
• Receive alerts about abnormal conditions
– User configurable warnings and alarms
– Before communication fails
• Visible at your HMI display

Communication hasn‘t failed yet …

 Ideal troubleshooting tool

• Pinpoint problems directly

– Complete instead of partial tests
– Without checking each instrument one-by-one
– Right at your workstation
• Quickly identify the kind of failure
– Receive data that enables you to examine:
EMC, software, hardware, wiring, etc…
• Use measurement techniques of fieldbus experts
• Allow Internet access for a designated fieldbus expert to
evaluate your fieldbus segment from remote
Oscilloscope function
Many trigger events selectable!

This telegram is lost…

 System Integration HD2-DM-A

OPC- Message
AE Aquisition

OPC- Status
DA Aquisition

FDT Frame
FDS Diagnostic
FieldConnex DTM
Diagnostic Server

Ethernet
COM 1…255

Segment 1
COM- Segment 2
Converter RS-485 HD2-DM-A
address 0…31
EtherNet Segment 3
USB
Segment 4
…
 System Integration HD2-DM-A

PC/Workstation

AMS Alert
OPC
Adapter

FDS Diagnostic
FieldConnex manager
Diagnostic Server

Ethernet
COM 1…255

Segment 1
COM- Segment 2
Converter RS-485 HD2-DM-A
address 0…31
EtherNet Segment 3
USB
Segment 4
…
 Practical Example

• An End User wanted to ensure that the physical layer

of his (running) application is good
• Before the measurement was done he was satisfied
with fieldbus
– No (or only a few) losses of telegrams
– No losses of instruments
• So everything seemed to be good!
• But …
Practical Example
 Practical Example

• Again, the fieldbus segment was working

– Fieldbus is a very stabile solution!
• In this application there were two problem areas
– The first one could be found very easily
– Unbalance -100% means a short between
“fieldbus – lead” and shield
 Practical Example
Structure of the application
Centralized 24VDC
power supply

„Rectifier“ 400 VAC

fieldbus +

fieldbus -

H1 controller
FPS without Wiring block
galvanic isolation with galvanic
(Power Conditioner) isolation
 Practical Example

• If the “- lead” of external 24VDC is connected to

ground
AND
• a fieldbus power supply without galvanic isolation is
used
• This causes “UNBALANCE”
• Unbalance is an indicator how sensitive the fieldbus
segment is against noise
BUT
• Disconnecting the earth didn’t reduce the noise
 Practical Example

• In case the noise is too high, typically

– You check the connection of the shield to ground
– You verify the grounding concept
– You check if some “power cables” are installed very close
to fieldbus cable
– You check if there are some “EMC transmitters” available
– …
• But knowing the frequency range of the noise would
reduce the possibilities
Practical Example

Approx. 7 ms

• In this example the frequency of noise was

approx. 150Hz
 Practical Example

• In this application 24VDC is generated directly from

3-phase 400VAC
• Let us have a look to the full wave rectifier
 Practical Example

• In a 3-phase network it would look like this if all

capacitors were destroyed
Input voltage Output voltage

• And this was the 2nd problem. Some of the

capacitors were destroyed (open circuit)
 Practical Example

• None of the problems were fieldbus related

– One was an engineering fault
– One was an external fault
• By using a fieldbus power supply with galvanic
isolation none of them would have an influence to
the physical layer
– The integrated DC/DC converter offers galvanic isolation Î
no pass through of ground potential
– The integrated DC/DC converter would keep the fieldbus
supply voltage “clean”
 Example 2

• Effect: (description of End User)

– The communication was stable for a long time, but than a
field device disappeared for several hours from live list.
– Then the device could be seen again.
 Example 2

• The following signal was measured at the host

• What can you recognise?
noise
Does not reach
max. amplitude

Rise/fall time
is too high
 Solution of Example 2

• The main problem was, that an improper cable with a

too high capacitance was used
• Single point grounding was used
– In conjunction with improper cable this happened noise
• By the way; the same signal measured in the field
Example 2

Same application but measured in the field

 Example 2

• You saw that the signal could look different when

measured
– At the Host / Fieldbus Power Supply
– In the field
• That’s one reason why we also will have a mobile
version of Advanced Diagnostic Module
Example 3

Effect:
The LCD’s of field devices
were ON but the devices
were in the live list just for
a short time.

Reason:
- Improper cable was
used
- Improper power supply
was used
- No EMC protection
 Example 4

Measured in the field

Effect:
Everything was OK, but the
signal of one device was
definitely asymmetric.

Reason:
-Device fault (communication
PCBÆ diode had cut the
signal)
 Example 5

Measured in the field

Effect:
The device was gone
sometimes and then came
back to live list. Similar to
unstable communication.

Reason:
- Slow wake up time before
transmitting.
- Manchester II code begins
always with positive half
period. It is missing now.
- Device failure
Other Example

Answer to early
 Back to Resonance Effect

• The Fieldbus Power Supply/Power Conditioner is the

device which creates the most jitter

• To understand why you need more information let’s

go more into details of Power Supplies and Power
Conditioner

• Earlier we discussed the balanced layout of Power

Conditioners
 What happens in case of a short?

Power Conditioner
Bulk Power Supply
1+

??? Segment 1
1-

2+
Segment 2
2-
 Effect

• In this example you have lost your balance on

segment 2
• Depending on this the sensitivity to noise is
increased
• The probability to lose telegrams is increased
• Signal amplitude will be reduced
• By using Power Conditioners this could have an
effect to other segments
Î CROSS TALK
• How to avoid this???
 How to avoid Cross Talk?

Galvanic Isolation
Fieldbus Power Supply
Bulk Power Supply
1+
Segment 1
1-

2+
Segment 2
2-
 How to avoid Cross Talk
• If you have a short on Segment 2
– You lose your balance on Segment 2
– This has no effect to Segment 1
Fieldbus Power Supply ??
Bulk Power Supply d?
n
u
o
gr
1+
to
Segment 1
ce
n 1-
la
b a
he
t
is 2+
r e
he Segment 2
,t w 2-
u
B
 Filter capacitor
• To maintain the balance the DC/DC converter
will be bypassed by a capacitor
Fieldbus Power Supply
Bulk Power Supply
1+
Segment 1
1-

2+
Segment 2
2-
 Block Diagram Fieldbus Power Supply

Bulk Fieldbus
Power Supply Power Supply

DC DC

DC DC

• Depending on the wiring there are a lot of

inductances and capacitances
• This causes resonance effects
– Your remember the low frequency components after the
End Delimiter?
Resonance Effect

• Depending on the wiring, resonance effects are

possible
• Under “normal conditions” this has only a small
effect on the reliability of the communication
– This depends mainly on the quality of the Fieldbus
Power Supply
– Frequency is low
• Under fault conditions (e.g. short between lead
and shield)
– The resonance frequency will be increased
– The sensitivity to noise will be increased
– Reliability will be reduced
 How does Resonance affect the signal?

Theoretical Signal
Bit 1 Bit 2
100%

50%

0%

Middle Middle
of the Bit of the Bit
 Effect of Resonance

Signal with resonance effect

Bit 1 Bit 2 Droop
100%

50%

0%

Jitter
 Real Signal with Resonance Effect

Resonance effect
 Additional Effect of Resonance

• An additional effect of resonance is “droop” of the

signal amplitude
• The impact of resonance effect on the signal
amplitude depends on
– The frequency
– The internal wiring of the matching impedance
• Target must be to keep the resonance effect as low
as possible
– E.g. additional filter (CREST)
– Solutions with low capacitive components
• Droop created by a fieldbus power supply depends
only on the quality of this component
 Advanced Diagnostics – a great
investment
• Energize fieldbus activities for
– Commissioning
– Operation
– Troubleshooting
• Educated decisions with
knowledge about your fieldbus
• In use since Aug 2006 with
>1000 modules installed!
 Live Demonstraion

Live demonstration featuring:

• How to connect
• Physical Layer Commissioning
• Troubleshooting
 Q&A

Frequently asked questions

• Why use RS-485 interface for diagnostics?

• Why not use Ethernet directly?
• Why not use FF-H1?
 FAQ

Why RS-485 based Diagnostic Bus?

• RS-485 is a simple, robust and field proven
• Low wiring cost due COTS accessories
• Little or no additional cost for infrastructure

Why not using Ethernet directly at the Diagnostic Module?

• Higher manufacturing cost due to more complicated technology
• Necessary Hubs/Switches increase costs and require additional space
(1 Ethernet switch per module required)
• Additional wiring cost
 FAQ

Why not using FF-H1?

• Do you want to transmit information over the bus you want to
monitor/diagnose? – How to diagnose H1 if there is a problem?
• Higher bus load on H1 increases cycle time for the process
• Not every function can be implemented (scope!) due to low H1 speed
• Increased manufacturing cost for the Diagnostic Module
• Limited functionality due to the use of DD as the common DCS
integration method
OUR SIGNALS MOVE THE WORLD