Testing bus devices – more than just cyclical communication

Testing sensors and actuators with fieldbus interface means first and foremost being able to handle a variety of different buses – in addition to Real-Time Ethernet, also “wired” fieldbuses such as Profibus and CAN / CANopen and the IO-Link communication system – and to be able to switch between several buses in one test system.

Apart from basic function of the bus itself, data acquisition and control via the bus must be tested, i.e. how quickly the data transfer across the bus interface works, with a particular focus on the dynamic behavior.

After all, often it’s not just testing, but configuration, parameterization and software updates are also required. There are many different mechanisms for this: platform-independent, such as FTP and TFTP, HTTP, Device Firmware Upgrade (DFU), Command Line Interface (CLI) flasher, plus bus-specific ones such as Ethernet over EtherCAT (EoE) and File over EtherCAT (FoE) or the assignment of IP address and station name for Profinet.

Test systems by müller+krahmer do all of this for a variety of sensors and actuators with fieldbus interfaces in different industries and applications – and much more …