NI Adds PCI and PXI PROFIBUS Interfaces

By DE Editors

National Instruments (Austin, TX) announced new PCI and PXI PROFIBUS interfaces to add compatibility and flexibility to industrial systems. With the new interfaces, PROFIBUS — an industrial communications bus with more than 20 million installed nodes worldwide in manufacturing, process control, and automation applications — lets engineers integrate NI LabVIEW software into benchtop, real-time, and device test PROFIBUS networks.

The NI PCI and PXI PROFIBUS interfaces (priced from $1,599) include a LabVIEW driver with Express VIs for rapid application development, enabling engineers to add PROFIBUS support to new or existing LabVIEW applications for human machine interface (HMI), SCADA, real-time control and test without additional programming.

The PROFIBUS interfaces can function as either master or slave devices on PROFIBUS networks. Plus, the NI PCI and PXI PROFIBUS interfaces include a graphical Configurator utility to configure network timing and set up PROFIBUS slaves on a network. The software abstracts the low-level details of using PROFIBUS and imports standard .GS* files for configuring I/O in an application. Configurations are saved in an open XML file format and integrate with Express VIs in the LabVIEW driver.

With LabVIEW, engineers can significantly reduce the programming complexity commonly associated with sophisticated control systems like PROFIBUS networks, and, with real-time control, engineers can create applications that run predictably in time with increased reliability and offer stand-alone operation.

For more information on the PROFIBUS, visit National Instruments.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company's website.