AlfredoQuintero
I am very grateful for your multiples replys
I will explain in more details what I need to do
I need to develop an adapter (be it profibus, profinet or Hart-IP). The adapter should connect to a profibus/profinet/Hart-IP network to retreive data from the devices. I didn't need to go into the details of the frames of these protocols. I simply need some software that it can catch the received frames on the network and provide the tags/values that are transported by these frames
Thank you in advance for you reply
Best regards
Hello again momo1510:
I am glad you think I can be of help. I really hope I can help you but since you have been providing your requirements bit by bit, I fear I may have not been able to provide proper advice. Let's see by this iteration.
For example, now you mention Hart-IP which very different from HART, even though in the very high layers of the protocol they do share some similarities.
OK, first of all when you say you need to make an adapter do you mean you need to convert commands from a Profibus/Profinet/Hart-IP master into something else, like a serial proprietary interface?
In the case of Profibus DP you cannot avoid the fact that you will need a special ASIC for Profibus DP, you will need this special ASIC to be implemented in a board with the correct RS845 driver (equivalent to what is known as the PHY) with proper optical isolators and so on, and have this ASIC connected to a microcontroller with flash, memory and other accessories. And this is just the hardware. Then you need to implement the firmware that configures the ASIC and implements the Profibus DP communication services and them implement the profile of whatever device you want to make. This requires that you develop the GSD file and if you want to sell this you will need to pass conformance test with a PI acreditted laboratory (PI is Profibus Profinet International). What I summarized in this paragraph is at least US$ 100K investment, if you include all the conformance test cost and purchasing of all the equipment needed for development, licenses and salaries for developers and so on, and that is if the manager of the project knows about Profibus. That means that you will need to sell a lot of your devices in order for the investment to have a positive return. If what you need to do is for a limited number of devices, there are in the market some gateways which have a serial interface with an easy protocol such as Modbus RTU, and on the other side Profibus DP. There are also some with Profinet device functionality and as for Hart-IP I am not sure; I would need to investigate. Such kind of gateways may cost some US$ 400 each, but you need only to configure them and they are already conformant so you need not go through conformance testing. If your device will be produced in small quantities, I would advice you find a supplier of gateways close to your area who can give you good support.
For Profinet there are communication stacks but they are not free. What kind of computer do you want to use for this adapter? In the case of Profinet and Hart-IP the physical layer is Ethernet, which makes the hardware easier if you are OK with commercial grade hardware. Profinet has some options such as RT (real-time) and media redundancy protocol (MRP) which are widely accepted and for such functionalities a commercial microprocessor with single MAC (media access controller) will not do. In this case you are in the same problem as Profibus in that you need special hardware.
In case commercial Ethernet interface is OK, you still need an RTOS, socket library and a proper communication stack. There are some free stuff in Githubs and what not, but since they are free they are not tested and they are not current. You would need to have a very deep understanding of socket technology and Profinet/Hart-IP technology to get this to work properly.
Again, if the number of adapters you need is small, it is better you pay to a proper supplier and buy the right gateway. the reason these gateways cost US$ 400 or so each is because there is a lot of effort put in their development, sales distribution and support of the product. The development of these kind of communication interface is no trivial undertaking.
