The combination of IOBlocks

industrial single board computer (like Moxa UC-8100) and PROFINET-stack developed by IOFactory (see [1]) builds a programmable PROFINET-IO device for customized solutions in automation environments. At the top level, IOBlocks provides slot-based access to the process data interchaged with a remote controller (PLC) and allows by this way to create different applications/logic on device side. Thus could be used for example for routing received data from PLC to a hardware interface (RS232, USB, Ethernet) and the other way around.

[1] Certification start planned for year 2020

Beside its functionality as IO-device

IOBlocks-PN can be used for detection and treatment of specific events that could arise in an automation network. At example: when the PLC stops communication due any reason and it is desired to trigger a specific action, like sending SMS or setting output signal, here IOBlocks-PN is the suitable solution as provides a functional block for monitoring connection status and the user can attach an action block to. The below diagram implements this described task by using only two blocks: one monitors the PN-IO communication and second one switches a LED on.

In another scenario

each Ethernet port can be configured as separated IO-device and allows to establish communication with physically separated controllers/networks. The process data of the controllers can be processed with IOBlocks and also transferred between the two networks. Thus allows to build couplers or very simple redundancy solutions for the case a PLC goes down.

With Linux as operating system, a wide range of device drivers are available for periphery that can be connected through USB, Ethernet, RS232/485 or miniPCI express. With the help of IOBlocks it's possible to access to the process data and build converters with the periphery.

Possible scenarios for integrating IOBlocks-PN

* Implementation of customized logic on device side
* Route process data to a device interface
* Capture specific network events, like PLC down or alarms
* Receive data from different PLCs (PN-networks)
* Send SMS with configurable list of numbers and messages
* Inter-process communication with a Linux application

IMPORTANT: Due the anatomy of the implemented software, IOBlocks-PN was not designed for providing a high data throughput or hard real time latency. The focus of IOBlocks-PN is the integration of customized periphery into a PROFINET-network, creation of on device logic and also interprocess communication with Linux-applications running on the device. For any queries related to other scenarios, please don't hesitate to contact IOFactory.