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AS-INTERFACE OVERVIEW |
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AS-Interface – The Why and How of AS-I |
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AS-Interface is one of the hottest trends in Automation |
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Replacing simple sensors and actuators with AS-Interface sensors
and actuators is one of the hottest trends in automation today, and for good reason. AS-Interface, already a worldwide de facto standard for simple I/O networking, is quickly becoming a US standard too. Its potential to cost effectively replace the rats nest of wires that permeates most industrial sites is tremendously appealing across many industries. Of the available low level sensor/actuator replacement networks,
AS-Interface offers the highest performance at the least cost.
Due to its roots as a Siemens network AS-Interface already enjoys the enthusiastic support of the Industrial Automation community in Europe. Now many automation vendors in the US are becoming attracted to its high speed, power on bus, simplicity of operation and insulation displacement wiring system. With Control Engineers increasingly more comfortable with a stratified networking system, AS-Interface is the perfect solution for the lowest level in the network architecture, those simple, low-level sensors and actuators that consume the majority of installation, startup and ongoing troubleshooting expenses. Quite frankly, with the growth of AS-Interface networking, for many automation vendors it is now a mistake to not support AS-Interface. |
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Important Questions You Must Ask Yourself First |
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Once you decide that your products must support AS-Interface, the big question becomes "how can I get it done and get it done quickly"?
Do you have excess Engineering resources to commit to the project? Can your existing opportunities and customers for
AS-Interface be put off until next year? Is your engineering staff intimately familiar with the technology? Are they experienced in the somewhat complex minefield of device-id selection? Do you have the PLCs, tools and physical resources to thoroughly test an AS-Interface solution?
If you're having difficulty with any of these issues, then this paper is written for you. It details the technical information you need to know and gives you practical steps for adding AS-Interface to your existing product in the next 30 Days.
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What is AS-interface, and why do I need it in my product? |
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AS-Interface is an intelligent cabling system designed to replace the discrete wires that link a Programmable Controller with sensors and actuators. AS-Interface provides a single cable system that is fast, easy-to-wire and easy-to-operate. Built for the simplest types of devices, AS-Interface is a Master-Slave system where a single AS-Interface Master can exchange I/O data with up to 62 AS-Interface Slave devices. Each Slave can transfer up to four inputs and four outputs on a bus cycle. AS-Interface is a standard hardware and software bus system that brings the reality of truly open systems to the lowest level of the automation business. Your customers are not just asking for connectivity at all levels of the control system, they absolutely expect and require it. Over 11,000,000 AS-Interface devices are now deployed worldwide. If you aren't already in this game, your competitors may already be a step ahead of you.
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What is causing this enthusiasm for AS-Interface? |
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The first attraction to AS-Interface is its low cost. Cost savings are typically 15 to 40% of other bus systems using traditional cabling methods. Plus the ongoing additional benefits of a bus system ensure enhanced operation and improved maintenance which reduce life cycle costs while improving product quality because of better performance and less downtime.
Second, the sheer blazing speed of AS-Interface attracts a lot of attention. Connected slaves are polled in turn by the AS-Interface Master. A V1 network (31 devices) provides a maximum response time of 5mS per I/O point. In practice, most system have fewer than 31 devices and the cycle times can be significantly shorter. The newer, extended AS-Interface bus with 62 devices provides a maximum response time of 10msec per I/O point, still much faster than the data acquisition and logic scans of most Programmable Controller systems.
Thirdly, AS-Interface is inherently deterministic and repeatable. Transmissions between the master and slave are predefined and cyclic. The time to set an output is calculable with great accuracy. |
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