Proudly Sponsored By

Welcome to the eighth issue of ICEnews, the Instrumentation, and Control Engineering news source.

We want to make this newsletter a source of information that YOU can use in YOUR job, while also keeping you informed on what is happening in our industry both directly and indirectly. If you have something, you would like to contribute, please send it to the editor at Ian Verhappen (ian.verhappen@iceweb.com.au) or Jim Russell (jimrussell@iceweb.com.au). We welcome your Press Releases, information, AND any technical articles you may have that could be appropriate for this newsletter or our web site http://www.ICEweb.com.au.

ICEweb’s primary purpose is to disseminate information about Instrumentation, Control Engineering to you the practitioners and developers of these arts. ICEnews is another mechanism to get this information out to you.

The authors encourage you to support our newsletter sponsors and also appreciate if you tell those companies to which you reply based on this newsletter that the inquiry is based on an article in ICEnews. Thank you.

The newsletter materials are ‘subdivided’ into various topics as follows though not all categories may be present in every issue:

ICEbus ¾ Information on any of the 26 different bus systems in use in the area of instrumentation and control. The authors however have a definite bias towards Foundation Fieldbus.

ICEfact ¾ small tidbits of information that may be of interest to you but if nothing else could some day be useful to amaze your friends with all the stuff you know.

ICEfolks ¾ News about promotions and changes people in the Instrumentation Control Engineering world.

ICEmerge — Mergers and acquisitions in the Instrumentation Control Engineering community

ICEnet — Internet sites that may be of interest to our readers. In addition to ICEWEB that is.

ICEsponsor ¾ Newsletter sponsor recognition. Normally at the beginning and end of the newsletter. These people have kindly contributed to the creation and sharing of this information by offsetting the costs associated with its production and distribution.

ICEtime ¾ Seminars, Tradeshows, Conferences and Events of interest to our readership. (Despite the fact that I am a Canadian, this will not include a listing of ALL the ice hockey games I know of or participate in.)

ICEart

The PXI Systems Alliance (PXISA) has released new specifications to separate the hardware and software specifications to allow the two related activities to evolve separately. Copies of the new specifications can be found on the PXISA web site at www.pxisa.org.

Two new IEC standards of possible interest to all of you are IEC/TS 61915 defining a framework for common representation of networked industrial devices using a device profile format compatible with bit and byte level networks. The other document is IEC 61511 on functional safety for safety instrumented systems for the process sector. This document is also being reconciled with the ISA S-84 standard.

There exists a set of interface standards and test suites for applications in the Linux environment. The Linux Standards Base (LSB) documents can be found at www.linuxbase.org, a subgroup of the Free Standards Group (www.freestandards.org), a non-profit organisation promoting open-source software.

Ultrasonic Scientific is launching an ultrasonic spectrometer for measuring composition and structure of semi-solids such as pastes, gels, suspensions and emulsions. The new HR-US 102 is a product of research by the Max Planck Institute in the former USSR.

ABB has released a new Ethernet module for their electronic drives allowing you to monitor them over the Internet.

The OPC Foundation has released a number of updated documents on their web site (www.opcfoundation.org/Downloads/Default.asp) including the OPC DX and OPC DA specifications.

Yokogawa Corporation has released a new version of their digital vortex meter that drastically reduces the need for reducing runs upstream of the meter. Full details can be obtained on their web site at www.us.yokogawa.com. Yokogawa has also released the model DT400G dust monitor that uses the friction electrostatic principle to determine the dust loading in a process stream.

Rockwell Automation has released a ControlNet network interface adapter to its Allen Bradley Point I/O product family.

Siemens Energy and Automation recently released a Simatic Diagnostic Repeater to provide on-line diagnostic information about RS-485 Profibus DP cable during operation.

Analytical device manufacturer HACH Company has a unique dissolved oxygen analyser that uses a luminescent measurement technique, resulting in a lower consumable and maintenance cost over the device life.

Consistent with its recent membership in the Fieldbus Foundation, Cisco Systems has released a rugged DIN rail mounted switch designed for use in harsh environments ranging from –40 to 140 F)

A number of XML Transaction standards are being developed by the PIDX group. Recommended Practice 3901 (RP3901) can be accessed at www.comproserv.org/standards_library.asp.

A related set of standards is being developed by the Distributed Management Task Force (www.dmtf.org). The Common Information Model Standards define some of the interface issues related to moving data between the various layers in an organisation. The standards can be found at www.dmtf.org/standards/standard_cim.php

If you would like to learn more about Functional Safety and IEC 61508 you can do so at www.iec.ch/zone/fsafety/

Innovative Brazilian company, Smar have recently released a HART USB Interface device for IBM PC compatible computers. The Smar HI321 is system powered and works with any USB connector. A product data sheet can be found at www.SmarResearch.com

ABB Process Analytics announced in January that they have discontinued the production of four of their physical property analyzers. The PPA4210 Freezing Point, PPA4211 Cloud Point, PPA4212 Pour Point, and PPA4214 Flash Point units. The PPA 4100 RVP and PPA4230 Hydrogen Sulphide analyser continue to be produced.

Proceedings of the recent IMC conference held in Auckland in late 2002 are available on CD for $10.00 + GST from the IMC secretary at secretary@imc.org.nz

The OMRON web site now supports 3D data for over 8,000 types of its control devices. You can also download the files for import into one of fifteen data formats. One caution though is to watch the bandwidth.

I came across a neat fiber optic based technology for Process Control Instrumentation that has HUGE potential for measurement of pressure and temperature to high resolution and in tight severe environments. Check Davidson Instruments out at www.davidson-instruments.com.

Dave Spitzer and Walt Boyes have recently released another volume in their “Consumer Flow Guide” Series. This one is on vortex meters. The books can be purchased on the ISA web site at www.isa.org.

ICEbus

The OMAC Microsoft Manufacturing User Group or MS MUG has issued a best practices document highlighting key aspects of Microsoft’s architecture that impact issues related to reliability, cost-effectiveness and long term support for the use of Microsoft technology on the plant floor. Information on the group can be found at www.omac.org.

If you would like to learn more about, CAN-bus the ‘granddaddy’ of fieldbus technologies, Sensor-Technik (www.sensor-technik.co.uk) has a PDF file answering questions about the application of this technology.

The following information is extracted from B&B Electronics technical bulletin ‘Basics of the RS-485 Standard’ and may be useful to some of our readers.

The EIA RS-485 Specification labels the data wires ‘A’ and ‘B,’ but many manufacturers label their wires ‘+’ and ‘-.’ In our experience, the ‘-‘ wire should be connected to the ‘A’ line, and the ‘+’ wire to the ‘B’ line. Reversing the polarity will not damage a 485 device, but it will not communicate. This said, the rest is easy: always connect A to A and B to B. In addition RS-485 networks can typically maintain correct data with a difference of –7 to +12 Volts.

ODVA is working on adding time synchronization services to it Common Interface Protocol (CIP). The CIPSync services will allow for sequence of events recording and distributed motion control to DeviceNet and EtherNet/IP systems.

The IEEE is hoping to have a new standard IEEE P802.20 addressing Mobile Broadband Wireless Access (MBWA) available within 2 years. MBWA will provide ubiquitous mobile broadband networking based on cell ranges up to 15 km or more for mobile users traveling at speeds as great as 250 km/hr. When completed, the interface will provide an efficient packet-based air interface that should be useful for applications like vehicle dispatch and monitoring of the equipment in real time.

The Fieldbus Foundation has kicked off a new project to prepare an H1 Physical Layer Test Enhancement project to develop extensions of the existing specification to include self-test procedures for fieldbus power supplies. Other projects recently announced include the Fieldbus for Safety initiative as well as the Extended Device Description as a joint effort with Profibus and HART.

The Profibus organisation has started work on a new version of ProfiNET for motion control expected to be delivered in 2005. The organisation has also updated its technical overview brochure, available at www.profibus.com.

Rockwell Automation, OMRON Corp., and SICK AG are working to develop a safety protocol based on the ODVA (DeviceNet, ControlNet, and Ethernet/IP) Control and Information Protocol. The new protocol will be called CIP Safety.

To ensure adequate determinism in an Ethernet system it is recommended that network utilization be kept below 30%.

The following is excerpted from an article by Rich Merrit in the December issue of Control magazine (www.controlmag.com) and may be of interest to many of you as well, especially the non-North American audience:

Alas, after hearing the details, I can say: FDT is hardly universal, will be a genuine pain for device OEMs, could be made obsolete by Microsoft in a New York minute, and is impossible to understand unless someone leads you by the hand through the murky documentation.

Even 40 minutes into the press conference, some editors were still confused. "What hardware changes does a vendor have to make to put a device onto the FDT fieldbus?" one editor asked. The FDT presenters looked stunned. Some editors did not understand that FDT was an asset management software package. They thought it was a new fieldbus.

Essentially, FDT is a software package that can interface to Profibus and HART devices. It requires that equipment manufacturers supply executable device driver software (called Device Type Manager or DTM) for every device that runs with FDT. Each DTM is an ActiveX component that runs in an FDT container or frame application under Windows.

This means that manufacturers that want to participate in FDT must write ActiveX code for a specific software package for a specific Windows platform, for every single fieldbus device the OEM sells. This is hardly universal; instead, it tends to lock everybody into a certain point in time.

The risk to device manufacturers and end users is simple: If an FDT user migrates to the next Microsoft platform, all that device driver code might not work, so all the drivers may have to be rewritten. As we've seen, when devices get to be more than five years old, manufacturers tend to lose interest in writing new drivers for old equipment. We've also seen Microsoft suddenly abandon its older technology. Remember Windows 95, DOS, 5-1/4 in. floppy disks, and Microsoft DNA for Manufacturing? Some people say ActiveX is next.

In fact, there's so much working against FDT, one wonders where the idea came from in the first place. Here's one possible scenario: BASF's polymer dispersion plant in Ludwigshafen, Germany, was installing a new Profibus system. They wanted a configuration tool for Profibus and HART that would link to their 15,000 I/O points. Somebody suggested FDT, and 10 equipment vendors wrote the necessary DTMs to make the software work and keep BASF, a huge customer, happy.

Be sure to check out http://www.iceweb.com.au/Instrument/HIST_Table%20(1).xls to access a tabular summary of the Fieldbus Foundation Host Interoperability Support Test results including the newly added Honeywell Experion and Yokogawa Stardom systems.

German company Bihl+Weidemann has developed an AS-i evaluation board suitable for testing of AS-i network products by piggy backing it on a larger prototyping board.

Fluid Power company Parker Hannifin has demonstrated the use of Bluetooth communications with their Moduflex pneumatic valve islands.

Thanks to Spectrum Controls Inc., users can now incorporate HART devices in their Allen-Bradley systems. Spectrum Controls released three 8-channel analogue I/O modules for the A-B 1756 I/O chassis.

Emerson Process Management has released two interesting Fieldbus products, their 375 CE powered handheld calibrator that can connect to HART as well as Fieldbus as well as the Rosemount 3420 Fieldbus Interface Module to connect FF to any host with Modbus communications.

ICEed.

SAIT is offering their Foundation Fieldbus Essentials and Discovery course on June 4 and June 5-6 at their facility in Calgary. Information can be found at www.sait.ca/fieldbus/courses/htm

The complete calendar of Fieldbus courses offered at Lee College is on their web site at www.knowthebus.org

ICEfacts

Audiophiles have been discussing for years whether vinyl records or CD’s provide better or truer sound. Well ELP Corporation has for a number of years been selling the laser turntable to play your records without placing a needle in the groove. If you enjoy music enough and have a significant record collection you may want to look into this further at www.elpj.com/main.html.

ICEfolks

Chuji Akiyma is on loan from Yokogawa Corporation to the University of Tokyo as a Visiting Professor in the Office of University Corporate Relations. His new role is to help plan and coordinate joint research and business programs between academia and industry.

Invensys Foxboro has named Scott Bump as its new Director of fieldbus programs. Mr. Bump will guide Foxboro’s integration of fieldbus solutions into their automation solutions.

ICEletters

A new engineering newsletter and website has been created by Barry Prince at www.enginears.co.nz that is worth a look or bookmark in your favourites list.

There are a number of weekly technical e-newlsetters available from Pro-talk.com at www.pro-talk.com. Topics include Process engineering, Quality Assurance, Subcontracting, Building, Printing, and CIM.

Another new control circulation magazine for the Automation professional will be issued next month. Automation World accessed at www.automationworld.com.

ICEmerge

Parker Hannifin has acquired MTS Automation from MTS Systems. MTS Automation provides customized automation solutions to OEM’s.

Altersys is now part of the ICS Triplex family as a subsidiary ISaGRAF that will continue to be based in Montreal.

Analytical Technology & Control Limited (ATAC) has purchased Sysco, which includes the former Hone and Hallikainen product lines.

The Automation and Control Solutions Group at Honeywell has purchased privately held Sensotec Inc. to complement their line of pressure, torque, load, temperature, force, acceleration and displacement products.

ABB Water Meters Inc. has changed their name to AMCO Water Meter Systems Inc. (www.amcowater.com)

Thermo Electron continues to acquire companies. It recently added EPM, a supplier of dilution probe sampling systems for Continuous Emission Monitoring sampling systems.

Yokogawa Corporation of America has relocated their Systems Division headquarters to Houston to better serve the key hydrocarbon markets in the Gulf Coast.

ICEnet

If you would like to learn more about vibration analysis a 250-page course on this technology is at www.vibrationschool.com

NASA has a web based solar system simulator at http://samadhi.jpl.nas.gov where you can choose your viewpoint, start time, field of view and a number of orbit options.

Learn more about deploying wireless LAN’s aw the Wireless Local Area Network Association at www.wlana.com

ICEtime

If you would like to have your event listed in ICEtime, please send a note or press release to the editor at ian.verhappen@iceweb.com.au

11^th – 15^th TAPPI Spring Technical Conference and Trade Fair, Chicago, Illinois www.tappi.org or 770/209-7291

13^th – 15^th Western Gas Measurement Short Course, Victoria, B.C. www.wgmsc.com

14^th – 16^th CEMS Users Group Meeting, EPRI, San Diego, California 248/740-1800

15^th Ethernet switching technologies seminar at the University of Warwick in the International Manufacturing Centre Contact Peter Jefferson at sales@ccontrols.co.uk to register (50 pounds fee) for this event.

19^th – 24^th ACHEMA 2003 27^th International Exhibition, Frankfurt am Main, Germany www.dechema.de

21^st – 22^nd Foundation Fieldbus European End User Council Meeting, Cologne, Germany

28^th – 29^th 5^th London Industrial Technology Show, Western Fairgrounds, London, Ontario www.reedexpo.ca/london

3^rd – 5^th ISA Industrial Communications Symposium, Chicago, Illinois. www.isa.org/indcomm

4^th – 6^th ACC 2003, American Control Conference, Denver, Colorado. See the web site at http://acc2003.me.berkeley.edu to gain more information on this event.

5^th North American End User Council Meeting, San Francisco (San Ramon), California. E-mail to euac@fieldbus.org or check out www.fieldbus.org for more information.

10^th – 12^th 3^rd Fieldbus International Exhibition, Tehran, Iran. Information on this event can be found at www.iicic.com/fieldbus

12^th – 13^th Integrating Electronic and Physical Security for the Power Industry, Chicago, Illinois. www.cbinet.com or 800/817-8601.

14^th – 19^th 46^th Annual Power Industry Symposium, Williamsburg, Virginia. www.isa.org/powersymp

22^nd – 25^th 4^th Annual Yokogawa Users Group Conference. The RIO, Las Vegas, Nevada with more information at www.us.yokogawa.com

22^nd – 26^th Air & Waste Management Association (AWMA) Annual Conference and Exhibition, San Diego, California www.awma.org

23^rd – 27^th 4^th International School-Conference BICAMP’03, St. Petersburg, Russia. Information can be found at www.bicamp.aanet.ru

24^th – 25^th SIS – Safety Integrity Level Determination course sponsored by CET (www.cetcenter.com) in Calgary, Alberta

24^th – 27^th ITEE 2003 will include invited plenary talks, contributed sessions, invited sessions, workshops and tutorials. Updated information available on ITEE home page: http://www.icsc-naiso.org/conferences/itee2003

26^th – 27^th SIS – Design, Verification & Justification course sponsored by CET (www.cetcenter.com) in Calgary, Alberta

29^th – 2^nd PREP-2003, 16^th International Symposium, Exhibit and Workshops on Preparative/Process Chromatography, San Francisco, California www.prepsymposium.org

10^th – 15^th 39^th IUPAC Congress and 86^th Conference of the Canadian Society for Chemistry, Ottawa, Ontario www.nrc.ca/confserv/iupac2003

4^th – 12^th Jump Aboard 2003, Auckland, New Zealand; Sydney, & Perth, Australia. www.iceweb.com.au/fieldbus for more information.

16^th – 19^th MICONEX 2003, Shanghai, China. International Fair for Measurement instrumentation and automation www.miconex.com.cn

29^th – Oct. 3^rd, Emerson Global Users Exchange Conference, Opryland Hotel, Nashville, Tennessee www.emersonexchange.org for information.

8^th – 10^th Siemens Process Automation User Community, Baltimore, Maryland www.sea.siemens.com/process and click on the User Community banner.

12^th – 18^th IEC 2003 67^th Annual General Meeting of the International Electrotechnical Commission, Montreal, Quebec

13^th – 15^th 5^th International Conference on Process Intensification for the Chemical Industry, Maastricht, Netherlands www.bhrgroup.com/confsite/index.html

13^th – 17^th IMEKO Conference on Environmental Measurements, Budapest, Hungary.

21^st – 23^rd ISA 2003 Reliance Centre, Houston, Texas. www.isa.org/isaexpo2003 abstract deadline is February 15.

22^nd – 23^rd IEEE Sensors 2003 Toronto, Ontario. Deadline for abstracts to be submitted to www.ieee.org/sensors is April 14.

27^th– 29^th World Batch Forum 2003 European Conference, Mechelen, Belgium www.wbf.org or e-mail dean@wbf.org

17^th – 20^th Eastern Analytical Symposium (EAS), Somerset, New Jersey. Phone 412/372-8965 for information.

27^th – 29^th SIcon/04 New Orleans, Louisiana. Conference details and a call for papers can be found at http://www.siconference.org/.

ICEtools

If you do any industrial networking, and today who doesn’t, be sure to download the IAONA Ethernet Planning and Installation Guide, third edition from their web site at www.iaona-eu.com. Well worth the registration process. A related 130-page guide from Hirschmann Electronics, that require registration can be obtained from the Hirschmann web site www.hirschmann.de.

A new ‘Wastewater Treatment Systems for Analysis’ brochure is available from Hach (www.hach.com) describing the suite of sampling, laboratory and field analyses associated with this important process.

If you need a way to calculate the permanent pressure loss for a variety of flow measurement technologies, download the spreadsheet at www.isa.org/intech/energycalc

If you would like to receive a copy of an interesting paper on loop tuning send a note to Lanny Robbins at LARobbins@dow.com to get a copy of his methodology for doing so.

A safety integrity verification calculation tool is available on-line at www.aiche.org/ccps/perd/ that contains a continuously updated built-in failure rate database.

The National Instruments web site has more than 2,400 free source code examples at www.ni.com/info.

If you do analogue mixed-signal design you may be interested in Simplorer SB version 6 that can be downloaded for free from Ansoft at www.ansoft.com

ISA is making available its complete archive of technical papers to its members for a nominal annual fee. Details on the program and a link to subscribe are at www.isa.org/techpapers.

UE Systems has launched the Spectralyzer that puts ultrasonic inspections into the realm of ultrasonic imaging. A 30 day evaluation version can be downloaded from www.uesystems.com and click through the Ultraprobe Accessories link.

Well recognized by such brand names as Circle Seal Controls, Hoke/Gyrolok fittings, and Go Regulators, Circor International Inc.

Hnors & Awards

is a leading supplier of valves and related products and services to a wide range of users who require precise, efficient, and safe fluid-control systems. For over 125 years they have been providing a complete array of fluid-control products and technologies to a highly fragmented industry.

Relcom Inc. specializes in the design and manufacture of wiring components and test equipment for the physical layer of Foundation Fieldbus and Carrier-band industrial local area networks (LAN). From our headquarters near Portland, Oregon, USA, we have provided taps, repeaters, network monitors, and test equipment to demanding users and leading control system manufacturers since 1985.

To sponsor this newsletter, please contact Jim Russell, ICEweb Director at jimrussell@iceweb.com.au. Benefits of sponsorship, in addition to being prominently displayed in the newsletter include a web link to your corporate site from your listing and any related articles, “top billing” of your article(s) in the appropriate news groups and your company name highlighted in any articles in which it appears.

Whilst every effort is made to ensure technical accuracy of the information supplied by iceweb.com.au, ICEnews, Keyfleet Pty Ltd and its employees accept no liability for any loss or damage caused by error or omission from the data supplied. Users should make and rely on their own independent inquiries. By accessing the site, and reading this newsletter users accept this condition.<SMALL><SMALL><SMALL> Should you note any error/omission or an article offends please do not ignore it, contact the editors and we will review, rectify and remove as necessary</SMALL>.