Profibus Master simulator

When you get your product working with that master simulator, how do you know how well it implements the Profibus standard and how your product is going to survive in the real word with a true Profibus master card ? For instance the software emulator might not keep exact timing and thus not load your device to the specification limit.

I would suggest that you get a PCI Profibus master card from at least one (preferably several) well known vendors and test your device against these. You may also need some kind of Profibus analyser to check the messages and that the timing is within limits.

You should also test your GSD file with the configurator(s) for these PCI Profibus cards.

Paul

Take a look at

If you're not in a hurry, ask again in a few weeks and I'll let you know what I think of it.

Robert

check out HMS Master simulators

I use this PC based simulator on a Profibus DP Slave I designed.

It is spendy though....

Eric

Thanks a lot for reply.

I went through the link provided.As I understand it,this PC based simulator SW that you are using has a baud rate limitation.It can be used at 9.6kbps nad 19.2 kbps only.Another thing is that I could not find anywhere maximum size of input and output data that I can exchange using PC based simulator.

What is the normal practice followed for testing Profibus slave devices in the industry?Which tools are used?

Those speeds are the only common speeds between Profibus DP/PA and a standard PC UART baud rate generator, so if you use a standard PC UART, you are limited to those speeds.

Paul

I agree with you;but then it is a limitation of this simulator and for testings at baud rates higher than this ; PC based simulator SW will not be useful, right?

If this is a school project, then it might be OK to test the Profibus slave with a Profibus master simulator.

However, if you intend to market your product with some degree of creditability, you _definitively_ should test it with some real hardware using a suitable test suite.

You can do the initial testing with a simulator, but sooner or later you are going to need real hardware anyway, so why not get the real hardware in an early phase of the project ?

I would not buy a Profibus slave if it has been tested with a simulator and when that testing has been done only at low speeds.

Paul

Thanks a lot Paul.

Your reply is quiet informative.We will bw ,marketing this product.So it will be better to go for actual hardware from start only.

I have one more doubt with DP SAPs.

What is the difference between Default data exchange SAP(0) and Rd_inp,Rd_output SAP? Can you suggest any refernce document for undertsnading SAPs?