Fieldbus

Fieldbus isn’t really one thing but more of a collection of things. Fieldbus is a group of protocols that are used in the industrial arena.

Fieldbus is simply a means of communicating with input devices (sensors, switches, etc.) and output devices (valves, drives, indication lamps etc.) without the need to connect each individual device back to the controller (PLC, Industrial PC etc.). Therefore, overall, Fieldbus can reduce costs.

computers would connect using direct serial connections whereby only two devices could communicate per connection. The Fieldbus, on the other hand, allows hundreds of analogue and digital points to connect simultaneously. This reduces both the number of cables required, whilst also cutting down the length of the cable needed.

There are a number of different fieldbus variants available, including:

●       AS-I Interface

●       Ethercat

●       Profinet

●       Canopen

●       Ethernet/IP

●       Sercos Interface

●       CC-Link

●       Ethernet Powerlink

●       Sercos the automation bus

●       CompoNet

●       Modbus

●       SmartWire-DT

●       DeviceNet

●       IO-Link

●       Ethernet

●       Profibus

●       Varan