Diagnosis Tool for PROFIBUS DP/PA and FF H1
The Bus Monitor is an indispensable tool for commissioning, maintenance and diagnostics of PROFIBUS networks, as well as for the development of PROFIBUS products.

The new Bus Monitor USB can easily be installed on a notebook or a desktop PC via its USB 2.0 interface. This makes it perfectly suited for the requirements of every day use. The handling is user-friendly without time consuming training. The low power requirement (approx. 40 mA) through the USB interface allows long run-time battery option of modern notebooks.

In online operation the Bus Monitor records the message interchange up to a baud rate of 12 Mbit/s with single bit accuracy. Also faulty telegrams are recorded. The passive RS485 interface, which is integrated in the plug, guarantees a reactionless measurement during the operation of the bus. During the test a live list divided into Master and Slaves is automatically generated.

In offline mode the recorded messages are displayed. They can be decoded on different protocol levels (physical level, FDL, DP-DPV1 or combined). The recording contains a precise time stamp providing a precise measurement of the bus timing even with 12 Mbit/s. The recording can be calculated in milliseconds, bit times, absolute time, or time difference between succeeding messages. The recorded messages can be stored in different formats and are then available for processing with external tools.

A various number of filters can be defined for recording as well as for displaying messages. These filters can also be used to search for certain messages. The start of a recording session can be defined by trigger conditions, i.e. a certain telegram or the n-multiple appearance of a telegram.

With the remote control functionality the Bus Monitor can be remote-controlled by any other computer via the DCOM interface. Especially, the logging function for long time supervision of networks, recording of changes of the bus configuration as well as the analysis of the bus characteristics (error rate, bus load, ratio of user data to protocol overhead) can be used comfortably by the remote PC.

The new software modules (Conti-, Spy- and OPC Module) extend the Bus Monitor's field of application substantially.

Conti Module
By means of the Conti Module PROFIBUS DP telegrams are continuously recorded during an arbitrary length of time. The only limitation is the available hard-disk space.

Spy Module
The Spy Module offers extensive possibilities of comfortably listening to the bus communication in online or offline mode. Owing to GSD based decoding and various analysis functions, all important characteristic of the manufacturing network are prepared graphically or in tabular form.

OPC Module
The OPC Module provides an open interface through which all data recorded by the Bus Monitor can be accessed online.