Chapter 4
NI-FBUS CM Software
NI-FBUS Hardware and Software User Manual
4-6
ni.com
Using the NI-FBUS Communications Manager Process
For any of your NI-FBUS Communications Manager applications to
run correctly, you must successfully launch the NIFB process. The NIFB
process is the medium by which your application communicates with the
devices on the Fieldbus network. The NIFB process receives requests
from your application and passes them on to the specified Fieldbus device
through the Fieldbus interface connected to your machine. Refer to the
Start the NIFB Process
chapter in your Getting Started manual for
instructions on how to start the NIFB process.
At startup, the NIFB process downloads the F
OUNDATION
™
Fieldbus
communication stack file
ffstack.bin
or
ffstack.usb.bin
to the
Fieldbus interfaces connected to your machine. It then downloads the
communication stack configuration parameters, such as the Fieldbus
network address for the interface device and so on, to each interface device.
You can edit these parameters using the NI-FBUS Interface Configuration
utility by clicking the
Advanced
button on the dialog box for the
Port
information.
The advanced parameters affect the operation of the
communication stack and should only be changed if you are aware of the
effect of your changes on the stack.
You must make sure to specify a unique, non-default Fieldbus network
address for the NI-FBUS Communications Manager to work properly.
You can use a default address if another entity on the Fieldbus assigns
your interface a non-default address. You can change the address from the
NI-FBUS Interface Configuration utility in the
Port
dialog box. You must
restart the NI-FBUS Communications Manager for any changes you make
to take effect.
The NI-FBUS Communications Manager process features non-volatile
storage of all network parameters, including the last known Link Active
Schedule. After network parameters (including the Link Active Schedule)
are stored, the NI-FBUS Communications Manager automatically reloads
them to the interface on startup.
At installation time, the non-volatile copy of the schedule is empty, but you
can make the NI-FBUS Communications Manager store the non-volatile
Link Active Schedule by downloading it to your Fieldbus interface. To
download a Link Active Schedule to your Fieldbus interface, you can use
the NI-FBUS Dialog utility. Refer to the
section
for an example of how to download the Link Active Schedule to your
Fieldbus interface. You also can use the NI-FBUS Configurator to
download a Link Active Schedule to your Fieldbus interface.