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halt. When this occurs, the engineers will not be able to easily locate the
failed device because the entire PROFIBUS network is down. To avoid this
situation, the ICF-1280I series converter has a mechanism to detect and
recognize noise signals. If the bus fails on one side, the noise signal will
not propagate through the ICF-1280I converter and affect additional bus
segments. In addition, the ICF-1280I converter will also trigger an alarm
to provide the location of the failure to the field engineer.
Fiber Link Monitoring
The ICF-1280I series converter provides a fiber link monitoring function
to detect the communication errors on both sides of the fiber connection.
When a communication error occurs, a red LED status indicator (P1, P2,
or Fault LED) will turn on and the relay alarm will activate. If a fiber
abnormality occurs on a remote fiber segment, the Fault LED will flash.
Engineers can then use the Fiber Diagnosis function for troubleshooting.
Reverse Power Protection
The Reverse Power Protection feature protects against accidentally
connecting the power cables to the wrong terminal. The converter is
designed to detect automatically which power wire is positive and which is
negative, and then adjust the power supply accordingly.
Remote Fiber Diagnosis
Optical fiber cables are often deployed for long distance communication
and a fiber optic inspection pen is used by engineers to ensure proper
communication quality of the fiber cable. The ICF-1280I series converters
eliminate the need for a fiber optic inspection pen by providing a Remote
Fiber Diagnosis function that uses DIP switch adjustments. There are two
major functions provided by Remote Fiber Diagnosis: (1) determining
which side (Tx or Rx) is causing the problem on the converter; (2)
examining the fiber connections for the overall topology from any
individual converter. Fiber cable abnormalities can be automatically
detected and identified by the LED indicator even if it is not adjacent to
the converter. Remote Fiber Diagnosis facilitates fiber cable deployment
and management, and also significantly shortens troubleshooting time by
examining fiber connections for the overall topology from any individual
converter.
