Foundation Fieldbus Microcontrollers

Hi Everybody,

I am trying to build a positioner with Foundation Fieldbus support.

The system architecture would consist of:

a. Analog In (4 - 20 mA for position set-point input in manual mode).

b. Analog Out (4 - 20 mA position output to the pneumatic block).

c. Microcontroller to implement the PID control loop with support for Foundation Fieldbus. (The primary role of the Foundation Fieldbus interface is to accept the position set-point and to provide the current position feedback in auto mode.)

I would like to know of any popular/standard microcontroller that offers:

  1. The required peripherals to implement a Foundation Fieldbus solution. (Preferably a dedicated peripheral such as a serial port for Foundation Fieldbus.)
  2. The complete Foundation Fieldbus software stack.
  3. A reference design showing how the microcontroller that implements the PID loop is interfaced to the physical layer.

I have tried searching for these type of microcontrollers on the internet with few meaningful results.

I observe that there are some "ASICs" offered by a few not-so-popular vendors that contain:

  1. The dedicated Foundation Fieldbus controller. 2. Microcontroller interface. 3. The MAU or PHY interface.

Any comments on why the big players do not offer something similar or a full-fledged solution?

Thank you for you for your help.

Thanks, Anand

Reply to
Anand P. Paralkar
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The reason the big players aren't in the market is because they feel that the market isn't big enough for the trouble. This isn't surprising: there are scads of CAN-enabled micros out there, because just about every car in production has CAN on it these days -- and there are a lot more cars than there are oil refineries.

So I'm not at all surprised at what you've found -- it's typical of the size and nature of the market for the communications link that you want to use. The best you can do is to suck it up and use what's there.

The only thing that I can suggest is that

(1) You may be able to implement the logic on an FPGA -- but I don't know what analog requirements you may be left to fulfill.

(2) You don't have to buy the software stack from the same vendor as the hardware, as long as everything plays well together.

(3) If you can make a microprocessor talk on FF correctly, and if you can make a microprocessor successfully implement PID control correctly, then making a microprocessor do both should be trivial.

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Reply to
Tim Wescott

FF is just a descriptive pipe dream, putting it bluntly that is.

If you want to do some research on bus type systems look at these.

ModBus:

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That is a very common protocol these days, even if it is old.

DeviceNet:

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This uses the CAN system originally done years ago by Bosch and maybe closer to what you're looking for. This is, the layer is done on the same type of physical transport but the protocols are more advanced.

ControlNet:

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THis is closer to what you're looking at but is old, if you use the Device net, it springs from the COntrolNet which started from the FieldBus. You may not like this one because it uses a single line. You do see this in cases of fiber use.

Allen Bradley has a DH and DH+ (data highway) that is done over a few busses, it is more of a protocol than anything else.

If you look at PLC's for automation, you'll find a lot more

Jamie

Reply to
Jamie

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