R
Hi,
In this list often a question is asked like "Does anyone know of a protocol converter from X to Y", and the subsequent answers are a list of products that promise to do just that.
Having made a 'simple' Modbus-to-ProfibusFMS converter once, I know such converters stir up more issues than one can believe, such as the translation of commands, replies and errors, different message lengths, different speeds, etc.
I wonder how many people assume that an X-to-Y converter converts everything anytime anyplace anywhere anyhow, but I think that it many cases it is not so simple, and a lot of work is left
to the user's application programs. Or, even worse, many features of the protocols X and Y are not available. The simplest converter I can think of is just a shared memory interface between two
protocol drivers, but I wouldn't call this a protocol-converter.
Anyone's experience with these things is appreciated...
Rob Hulsebos
In this list often a question is asked like "Does anyone know of a protocol converter from X to Y", and the subsequent answers are a list of products that promise to do just that.
Having made a 'simple' Modbus-to-ProfibusFMS converter once, I know such converters stir up more issues than one can believe, such as the translation of commands, replies and errors, different message lengths, different speeds, etc.
I wonder how many people assume that an X-to-Y converter converts everything anytime anyplace anywhere anyhow, but I think that it many cases it is not so simple, and a lot of work is left
to the user's application programs. Or, even worse, many features of the protocols X and Y are not available. The simplest converter I can think of is just a shared memory interface between two
protocol drivers, but I wouldn't call this a protocol-converter.
Anyone's experience with these things is appreciated...
Rob Hulsebos