All the Major Fieldbus Protocols in One Course?

B

Thread Starter

bin95

We just started offering an online Fieldbus course that proclaims <i>"No other Fieldbus training course in the world includes all of these protocols in one package!"</i>

I thought, that is a pretty big claim, but because my own experience in Fieldbus technology is limited, I though it best to ask the group ... "what are the most popular <b>Fieldbus protocols</b>?

The online Fieldbus course covers FOUNDATION Fieldbus, Profibus PA, HART and ASibus. Is there one or more Fieldbus protocols that is more popular than the 4 above?

More important to verifying the claim, do you know of any other online Fieldbus course that covers all 4 protocols?

Thanks for you help.
 
Some may not call them 'fieldbuses' but the two most popular Industrial networks used for Remote I/O and Communications today are ProfiNet and Ethernet/IP.
 
J

James Ingraham

First hit on Google for "Fieldbus market share"
http://www.drivesncontrols.com/news...till_twice_as_big_as_industrial_Ethernet.html

But there are some problems with your question and my answer. First of all, if you confine the question to specifically the process industry, the data undoubtedly changes. I mention this because FF, Profibus PA, and HART are concentrated in the process industry. You'll note that FF and Profibus PA aren't even on the chart. Meanwhile, FF claims a "68 percent market share in the process industries." http://www.fieldbus.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=148&Itemid=312

AS-i is NOT a process fieldbus. It's odd to see it with those other three. HART isn't a fieldbus at all, it's a point-to-point communication protocol. It is, however, predominantly in the process industry.

Are there other popular fieldbuses? Absolutely. DeviceNet, CANopen, and even CC-link beat out AS-i, and presumably both FF and Profibus PA. Regular Profibus dwarfs just about everything. You don't mention Modbus, which is also not a fieldbus, but a very common protocol.

>More important to verifying the claim, do you know of any
>other online Fieldbus course that covers all 4 protocols?

I don't know of any course that covers those 4 protocols. This is not surprising; FF and Profibus PA are mortal enemies, and AS-i doesn't fit well. I'd say it's a safe claim.

-James Ingraham
Sage Automation, Inc.
 
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