Certificate in Troubleshooting and Problem Solving of Industrial Protocols

Including Modbus Modbus/TCP Profibus Profinet Foundation Fieldbus HSE Ethernet/IP

 

 

As we know, there has been an explosion of industrial protocols in the market today. This course promotes the theme which is rapidly growing strength: you should focus on your application and apply the particular protocol to match this application and ensure easy interconnectivity between the different standards. Selecting one standard to match all applications is not really a practical approach.

 

 

 

The communications system on your plant underpins your entire operation. It is critical that you have the knowledge and tools to quickly identify and fix problems as they occur, to ensure you have a secure system. No compromise is possible here.

 

You will learn how to understand, identify, prevent and fix common problems for the common industrial data communications protocols focussing on Modbus, Modbus/TCP, Profibus, Profinet, Ethernet/IP and Foundation Fieldbus HSE. The focus is 'outside the box', with emphasis on solutions that go beyond the typical communications issues and theories. It will provide you with the necessary toolkit of skills to solve industrial protocol problems knowledgeably and effectively.

 

The course commences with Modbus industrial protocols (based on RS-232/RS-485 and Ethernet) which are being installed throughout industry today, from connecting simple instruments to Programmable Logic Controllers to PCs throughout the business part of the enterprise. Communications problems range from simple wiring problems to intermittent transfer of protocol messages. Modbus, effectively one of the few (arguably, the only) industrial messaging protocols recognized by the Internet world (port 502) has one of the largest installed bases worldwide with more than 7.2 million installed nodes. Ethernet, which is also fast becoming the obvious choice for industrial control networking world-wide and underpins most of the modern industrial protocols, is then discussed. While the basic structure of Ethernet has not changed much, the faster technologies such as Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet have increased the complexity and choices you have available in planning and designing these systems. As Ethernet has become more complex, a number of misconceptions have arisen as to how it functions, how the system should be optimally configured, what exactly industrial Ethernet means and how the interlocking industrial protocols fit into Ethernet.

 

The TCP/IP protocol is covered in some depth with a focus on its structure and how it relates to the industrial protocols. The various software utilities such as ping, arp and netstat are used to demonstrate quick ways of troubleshooting the network. Problems related to the Internet layer such as incorrect IP addresses and subnet masks are dissected in considerable detail. There has also been a convergence between industrial protocols. Foundation Fieldbus and DeviceNet are also increasingly becoming based on industrial Ethernet for the higher speed data transfer applications. There is a fair degree of confusion about where each is applied and a clear comparison between the different standards and where they are applied is given. The first major Ethernet based protocol - Modbus TCP/IP - has been accepted by the International Electro-technical Commission (IEC) as a Publicly Available Specification (IEC PAS 62030) and is not eligible to become part of future editions of the International Standards IEC 61158 and IEC 61784-2. So it enjoys the status of a widely available Open Standard available to everyone, thus the popularity. Whilst detractors will say the Modbus protocol lacks some of the refinements of the newer offerings on the market, there is no doubt that it is one of the most popular standards available in the industrial world today.

 

The Foundation Fieldbus HSE standard is examined as far as its structure and how it fits into industrial Ethernet and TCP/IP. The common industrial protocols and systems such as Ethernet/IP and Profinet are covered in considerable depth focussing on their packet structures, use with TCP/IP and typical problems encountered and how to investigate these.

In summary, this course addresses the main issues of troubleshooting the industrial data communications network of today with a focus on the protocols, enabling you to walk onto your plant or facility and troubleshoot and fix problems as quickly as possible.

 

 

 

 

 

The roadmap of industrial data communications

Basic standards - RS-232/RS-485 and Ethernet

Protocol structures

Common symptoms, problems and solutions

How to quickly identify likely causes

Overall basic steps

Communications issues

Earthing/shielding/noise

 

 

What is Modbus?

Overview of the Modbus standards

Modbus and IDA

How Modbus relates to the RS-232, RS-485, Ethernet and TCP/IP standards

Fundamentals: Overall concept, protocol stack, client/server interaction, PDU and ADU

Modbus RTU vs. Modbus ASCII: frame structures and timing considerations

Problems: timeouts, checksums (CRC/LRC), incorrect function codes/data parameters, exception responses

Modbus Plus

- Fundamentals

- Problems: cabling, earthing, shielding, terminators, token passing

 

 

Fundamentals

Problems: cabling, fibre, shielding, earthing, segmentation, addressing, token bus, unsolicited messages, fine tuning of impedance terminations, drop-line lengths, GSD Files, intrinsic safety

 

 

Fundamentals

Problems: wiring, grounds, shielding, wiring polarity, power, terminations, intrinsic safety, voltage drop, power conditioning, surge protection, configuration

 

 

Fundamentals

Protocol analysis

Problems: noise, UTP cabling, wire types, components, incorrect media selection, jabber, excessive broadcasting, bad frames, faulty autonegotiation, 10/100MBit/s mismatch, full/half duplex mismatch, faulty hubs and switches

 

 

Fundamentals

Software utilities (ping, arp, netstat) Protocol analysis

 

 

Problems: incorrect IP addresses, subnet masks, default gateways, Time-to-Live (TTL) settings. Inability to make TCP connections, connection resets

 

 

Fundamentals: overall concept, protocol stack

Packet structure: PDU, ADU, MBAP header

TCP connectivity issues

Protocol analysis

Modbus/TCP to Modbus Serial Gateways

Problems: TCP connection problems, timing issues

 

 

Fundamentals

Packet structure

TCP/IP connectivity issues

Protocol analysis

HSE to Serial Gateways (HSE to RS-232/485 or HSE to H1)

 

 

Fundamentals: overall concept, protocol stack

Packet structure

TCP connectivity issues

Protocol analysis

Ethernet/IP to Modbus Serial Gateways

Problems: TCP connection problems, timing issues

 

 

Fundamentals: overall concept, protocol stack

Packet structure (Including 'normal', soft real time or 'hard real time')

TCP connectivity issues

Protocol analysis

ProfiNet to serial gateways

Problems: TCP connection problems, timing issues

 

 

Summary of all the problems faced

Further troubleshooting tips

Wireless and Industrial protocols

 

 

Using our remote labs and your PC, you will be exposed to practical sessions for every module, which will cover the following topics:

Configuration of an Ethernet Network

Diagnosis of network hardware problems

Modbus Serial operation: RTU mode

Modbus Serial operation: ASCII mode

Modbus (Serial) over IEEE802.11 wireless

IP configuration

Configuration of TCP/IP and a router

Use of TCP/IP utilities

Protocol analysis on Ethernet network

Installation and configuration of Modbus/TCP to Serial Communication Gateway

Protocol analysis of Modbus, Modbus over TCP/IP, Profinet, Ethernet/IP