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Products and Services for the HART Protocol, PROFIBUS, MODBUS, Embedded Systems Design, Embedded Sytems Simulation and Embedded Systems Testing
Software Development and Consulting
for Smart Field Devices in Process Control and Factory Automation | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Shipping Now: Hart Tools 6.0.10 In order to improve our services and products we have released a new version of our Hart Tools. The new set of tools is available as a trial version for the following components:
The FrameAlyst is now supporting
three modes. It can work passive, act as a slave and can be used
for the role of a master. Interested? Download the trial setup directly from here. It is free of charge. More info needed? Check Documentation Examples. |
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HartDLL 6.0 / CE |
HartDLL 6.0 / CE is a Hart driver for |
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HartMux 6.0 |
Is a multiplexer in software running
on a |
If you like to get more information |
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HartDLL 6.0 / SL |
The product is an add on to the HartDLL and allows to run the HartDLL in slave mode. Thus providing a Hart server based on PCs or hand helds. The SL option can be combined with the CE option. |
The HART Communication Protocol, PROFIBUS and MODBUS are industry standards for the hard and software development of smart field devices for process control. Also the technology device description language (DDL) - which serves similar needs as HTML - is an international standard. The engineering consultancy Borst Automation is providing services for embedded systems design and development based on the listed technologies and other similar fieldbus specifications. Some tools for software development targeted to field instruments (embedded systems) and communication protocols are also available.
The new tool chain for HART is available and consists of a HART Communication Windows DLL, a monitor named FrameAlyst and the HartX.Net which is a component based on the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0. The new tools are supporting HART 5 through HART 7. The software supports com port numbers in the range from 1 to 254. The timing behavior and the evaluation of interface error codes in Windows are also adapted to the requirements of USB ports and HART over INTERNET.
For students and young engineers interested into the programming of the Hart functionality on a PC com port we provide a free-of-charge Visual Studio example. The example does not require to purchase anything else.
Borst Automation at a Glance
New Design Ideas, Embedded Software Platforms, Real Time Device Simulations, Communication Systems Development and Component oriented Implementations.
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Contact: weehborst@aol.com or info@walter-borst.de
The Story of the Engineering Consultancy
The Start of Fieldbus, Profibus & Co.
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The introduction of microprocessors in the beginning of the 1980s changed the environment of the developers of devices for process control for the first time. Microcontrollers like the 8031 family at these times already had serial interfaces and soon the engineers (myself included) started to use them for debugging and production purposes. Later the serial interface was introduced as digital communication to offer new functionality to the users of the devices. It was logical that it would be of advantage to standardize the usage of the serial interfaces. The idea of fieldbus was born by the middle of the 1980s and we all know how this development of a fieldbus standard ended. It is interesting that the HART Protocol and MODBUS - two of the most popular field communication protocols - are 'only' industry standards. |
Windows Software
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At the begin of the 1990s the engineering consultancy Borst Automation started into business. Meanwhile Windows was replacing DOS in PC programming. Unfortunately at this time programming under Windows was rather complex compared with the former DOS. The developers of embedded systems for process control and measurement had no time to master Windows programming quickly enough and the managers of their companies made statements like: "Windows is not our core competence!". This was a chance for Borst Automation to start to develop Windows programs for the configuration of field devices with HART communication, PROFIBUS, MODBUS and others. From these developments a framework was derived which I called Visual Instrument. You may download a free demo of this package immediately from here: http://www.hart-profibus.com/VIdemo.zip. Please refer to the instructions to set it in proper operation. Because it is a demo a device is simulated to show all the functions. This requires certain steps after the software was started. |
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By end of the 1990s Windows was no longer a mystery because tools like Delphi, Visual Basic and others where available. Now there was a need for drivers handling the communications. This was difficult regarding a HART master because this entity needs a real time state machine working in the range of a few milliseconds. By 1998 Borst Automation successfully introduced an Active X for the HART protocol. The software product was named ActiveHART and with a later release HartX 3.0. This OCX was based on the OLE interface of Windows and acts similar to an OPC server. An Active X is very nice and easy to use in Visual Basic or Delphi applications. Connecting an Active X to pure C is nearly impossible. Therefore we developed a new driver recently as a 'simple' Windows DLL for the HART protocol. If you like you may download a free trial right away on the top of this page.
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Embedded Systems Software
There was also a lot of communication software developed by the engineering consultancy Borst Automation for embedded systems up to now. One of these was a slave for HART communication specification Rev 5. Because HART protocol Rev 6 is now the standard we offer the source code for Revision 5 for free. At least this C source code can be used to start to develop a device which supports the Hart protocol.
Since the year 2000 software was more and more the topic of field instrument development. The complexity of the devices is increasing from generation to generation and the quality of the software became the central point of development costs. In earlier times it was easy to write 'a small program' for a transmitter and make it working. At present time a software design is required and the project has to follow strictly certain rules. There must be a functional specification and a test specification before development is started at all.
At present time companies providing field devices for process control are global players in most cases. Therefore software quality is a key issue. To guarantee a high software quality Borst Automation is recommending and using coding conventions such as MISRA or the Hungarian Notation or whatever the customer's standards require.
PC Simulation of an Embedded System
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Another method serving the need to improve the quality of a software product is the use of a PC-Simulation. This allows the developer to implement most of the device software within e.g. a Visual Studio environment. Visual Studio is one of the most efficient tools for software development. About 90 % of the device software can be developed using the PC simulation. Another aspect of the issue is that software development can be started without having any hardware available. |
Device Description Language
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VARIABLE range_limit_upper { CLASS CORRECTION; LABEL "UPPER RANGE LIMIT"; TYPE FLOAT { DISPLAY_FORMAT "3.2f"; } CONSTANT_UNIT "Bar"; HANDLING READ; } |
In 1989 there was the first presentation of a complete fieldbus system with measuring instruments and actuators, a SCADA system and a hand held terminal conducted by a couple of key companies in process automation. I was the project manager for Endress+Hauser at this time. Because of the great acknowledgment by the potential users the International Fieldbus Group (IFG) started to develop specifications and requirements to support the international work on fieldbus standards in 1990. Within this group I was one of the two key developers of device description language (DDL). At the end of 1990 the first specification was released within the IFG. Later Rosemount Inc. extended it by the command mapping functionality and included it into the HART specification. |
Single Source Development
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A couple of years later DDL was also introduced by PROFIBUS and Fieldbus Foundation. Meanwhile it is known as EDDL and became an international standard. The DD in HART, PROFIBUS and FF are very similar but - what else did you expect? - slightly different. This means that for each communication protocol and each device variant another DD is required. How can the costs for this effort be reduced? The answer is: Single Source Concepts. The basic idea is to put all the information about the parameters of a device into a database. This database is used by generator programs to produce different DDs and - in a lot of cases - C source code for the framework of the embedded system. Borst Automation is offering consulting services for the development of such single source databases and generator programs. In the free software package for HART Revision 5 an example is given how access can be used as a source code generator. |
I hope that you have enjoyed reading about the technical history and I would appreciate to receive your email with questions and/or comments.
Walter Borst
Borst Automation
Walter Borst
Im Wingert 4
D-65626 Fachingen, GERMANY
Voice: +49 (0) 6432 989176
Fax: +49 (0) 6432 989129
Email:
weehborst@aol.com or
info@hart-profibus.com
Home: http://www.hart-profibus.com/
If you are interested into the private homepage of Walter Borst please click here.
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Last updated: 12.04.2009 |