isPro Gate

As the fieldbus standard Profibus advances to more and more production sectors the need for devices to fit to a Profibus system increases. Devices which already include an RS-232 interface should be connectable to Profibus in an inexpensive and easy way. Devices which are sold in small unit numbers don't justify the time and money required for the development of a vendor-specific Profibus interface.

The isPro Gate provides an efficient solution for this kind of problem. It enables a Profibus access without any hardware changes to existing products. The coupler is connected to the Profibus network via screw terminals. With the RS-232 connector the fieldbus device is linked. The interface can be rail- or wallmounted. Alternatively the interface can be integrated into the device with an add-on board. In this case the data exchange is linked through a dual ported RAM, thus increasing the speed of the data exchange between the device and the interface.

The isPro Gate supports the Profibus protocol classes DP and DP/V1. The exceptional feature that distinguishes the is Pro Gate from similar products is that it also includes the acyclic services of DP/V1 (AC2). With an optional Profibus profile chip the device can be accessed in conformance to the Profibus PA standard. The physical layer remains unchanged so that the IEC-1158-2 physical specification is not supported. This is of special interest for all devices which want to access the additional functionality provided by Profibus PA without having any need for intrinsic-safe transmission.

The serial communication protocol of the RS232 connection is adaptable to the special needs of any customer.