©
National Instruments Corporation
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NI-FBUS Hardware and Software User Manual
1
Introduction
This chapter provides an introduction to the F
OUNDATION
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Fieldbus (FF)
and the National Instruments hardware and software products for FF.
FF Overview
F
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Fieldbus is an all-digital, two-way, multi-drop
communication system that brings the control algorithms into
instrumentation. F
OUNDATION
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Fieldbus is a Local Area Network (LAN)
for F
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Fieldbus devices including process control sensors,
actuators, and control devices. F
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Fieldbus supports digital
encoding of data and many types of messages. Unlike many traditional
system which requires a set of wires for each device, multiple F
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Fieldbus devices can be connected to the same set of wires.
F
OUNDATION
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Fieldbus has two communication protocols: H1 and HSE.
The first, H1, transmits at 31.25 Kb/s and is used to connect the field
devices. The second protocol, High Speed Ethernet (HSE), uses 10 or
100 Mbps Ethernet as the physical later and provides a high-speed
backbone for the network.
Please refer to
F
OUNDATION
TM
Fieldbus Overview
document for more
information about F
OUNDATION
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Fieldbus technology.
NI-FBUS Hardware Products
PCI, PCMCIA, and USB
National Instruments provides interface devices for the PCI bus
(PCI-FBUS), PCMCIA (PCMCIA-FBUS), and USB (USB-8486). Each
National Instruments device connects F
OUNDATION
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Fieldbus devices
to standard desktop, industrial, and notebook personal computers.
PCMCIA-FBUS is available in 1- and 2-port configurations. PCI-FBUS
is available in a 2-port configuration. USB-8486 is available in a 1-port
configuration.