Profinet

Overview

Profinet (usually styled as PROFINET, as a portmanteau for Process Field Net) is an industry technical standard for data communication over Industrial Ethernet, designed for collecting data from, and controlling equipment in industrial systems, with a particular strength in delivering data under tight time constraints.

This protocol is optional and subject to license. It should be installed on demand.

Connection Properties

localInterface (string, required)

Name of the interface providing cyclic profinet data

Example: "eth0"

gsdPath (string)

Path to a directory containing GSD files

Default: "/app/src/protocols/profinet/gsd"

Example: "/app/src/protocols/profinet/gsd"

configPath (string)

Path to a directory containing config files

Default: "/app/src/protocols/profinet/config"

Example: "/app/src/protocols/profinet/config"

connectionStrategy (object)

If a connection attempt fails, retries will be performed with increasing delay (waiting time) in between. The following parameters control how these delays behave.

Properties of the connectionStrategy object:

initialDelay (integer)

Delay (waiting time) of the first connection retry (in milliseconds). For subsequent retries, the delay will be increased according to the parameter incrementFactor which has a default value of 2.

Default: 1000

Additional restrictions:

  • Minimum: 1000

maxDelay (integer)

Maximum delay (waiting time) to wait until the next retry (in milliseconds). The delay (waiting time) for any subsequent connection retry will not be larger than this value. Must be strictly greater than initialDelay.

Default: 30000

incrementFactor (integer)

The factor used to increment initialDelay up to maxDelay. For example if initialDelay is set to 1000 and maxDelay to 5000 the values for the delay would be 1000, 2000, 4000, 5000.

Default: 2

Additional restrictions:

  • Minimum: 2

Endpoint Properties

deviceName (string, required)

Name of the Profinet Device

Example: "egl-90"

api (integer, required)

Integer number describing identifying the application process

Default: 0

Example: 0

slot (integer, required)

Slot number

Example: 1

subSlot (integer, required)

Sub-Slot number

Example: 0

propertyName (string)

Name of the property to read as defined in the GSD file

Example: "actual value"

propertyIndex (integer)

Index of the property as defined in the GSD file

Example: 0

Sample commissioning file

Download: profinet-example.yml

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---
description: >
  Sample Profinet commissioning file

metadata:
  name: Profinet example
  icon: https://www.cybus.io/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/for-whom1.svg
  provider: cybus
  homepage: https://www.cybus.io
  version: 1.0.0

resources:
  profinetConnection:
    type: Cybus::Connection
    properties:
      protocol: Profinet
      connection:
        localInterface: 'eth0'
        gsdPath: '/app/gsd-files' # These paths are referenced between the container
        configPath: '/app/profinet-config'
        connectionStrategy:
          initialDelay: 1000
          maxDelay: 30000
          incrementFactor: 2

  endpoint1:
    type: Cybus::Endpoint
    properties:
      protocol: Profinet
      connection: !ref profinetConnection
      subscribe:
        deviceName: 'netx52repns'
        api: 0
        slot: 0
        subSlot: 0
        propertyIndex: 0

  mapping:
    type: Cybus::Mapping
    properties:
      mappings:
        - subscribe:
            endpoint: !ref endpoint1
          publish:
            topic: 'netx52rens_output'

Output Format

The data will be written as a JSON object with a timestamp and a data member called value.

For example for the endpoint endpoint1, the output will be:

{
  "timestamp": 1581932492902,
  "value": [0, 1, 0, 0]
}