Fieldbus diagnostics monitor for commissioning

An addition to the MTL-Relcom Foundation fieldbus H1 toolkit, the FBT-6 Fieldbus Diagnostics Monitor, is a handheld device that monitors a live fieldbus network without interfering with its operation

MTL-Relcom has announced the latest addition to its Foundation fieldbus H1 toolkit, the FBT-6 Fieldbus Diagnostics Monitor.

The handheld device monitors a live fieldbus network without interfering with its operation, enabled via an impressive variety of features including noise measurements in 3 bands, monitoring of signal level for all devices, monitoring of signal to shield faults, network retransmissions and the ability to download data to a PC via a USB port.

Aimed at maintenance personnel and Distributed Control Systems (DCS) suppliers, the FBT-6 is intended for easier and faster troubleshooting and commissioning of fieldbus segments by eliminating the need to connect a tester on each segment or device.

The device builds on the Relcom FBT-3 fieldbus tester - established as the standard for fieldbus H1 test equipment - and has been developed in collaboration with key end users, fieldbus training centres and systems companies.

Feedback from these groups highlighted the complexity of the bus parameters required by modern fieldbus commissioning procedures.

The new FBT-6 performs measurement and collection of all the key parameters, providing the user with a comprehensive baseline of the fieldbus physical layer.

The FBT-6 diagnostic monitor measures noise levels in fieldbus frequency, as well as low and high frequencies (3 bands) in order to predict and identify potential communication errors often caused by high frequency noise.

The device records peak and average noise levels based on this information.

Monitoring of signal levels for all devices, as well as monitoring of signal to shield faults often caused by poor installation practice are important new measurement functions offered by the FBT-6 - contributing to the establishment of a complete view of the characteristics of the fieldbus physical layer.

Network retransmissions are checked by the FBT-6 from each device on the segment.

If a device fails to respond to 3 consecutive pass tokens, it will be removed from the live communication list, while an alarm will alert the operator to the problem.

This feature is a key element in providing an indicator of the health of the network, as high levels of retransmissions signify the presence of a communications problem on the bus.

Detecting this information via the FBT-6 allows for corrective action to be taken before a device is removed from the live list.

Data collected by the FBT-6 can be quickly downloaded to a PC via a USB port (FBT-6 Assistant software provided to support Windows XP).

The transferred files will be saved as comma separated files (.csv) and can be opened in Microsoft Excel, displaying the parameters and actual values of collected data in an easily readable format.

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