In the Configuration tab, there are additional settings for operation with 32Mbit Flex.

Reserve bandwidth for Ethernet communication.

The Ethernet channel (address 0 in the Flex configuration) is used on the fiber optic link to transmit configuration data, to communicate with a web interface if necessary and, in particular, to display the Profibus diagnostics in the case of ibaBM-DP. If many devices are configured with a lot of signals, it may happen that only the minimum size of 1 kB/s is reserved for the Ethernet channel. This is often insufficient and the Profibus diagnosis may not be displayed as a result or communication with the web interface may become very slow.

With the "Reserve bandwidth for Ethernet communication" option, a fixed bandwidth can be reserved for Ethernet communication for the relevant link so that the devices are always accessible. The default value of 4 kB/s is usually sufficient for configuration data and Profibus diagnosis.

Mirror mode

3 settings are available for mirror mode:

• • Disabled: The data are not mirrored so that this ibaPDA system is the only one capable of configuring the devices and acquiring data.

  • Master: This ibaPDA system configures the Flex devices on this link: The data and the device configurations are mirrored so that other ibaPDA systems can also capture the data.

  • Slave: This ibaPDA system receives the device configuration from the ibaPDA master so that it can capture the data configured by the ibaPDA master.

For detailed information on the mirror mode, refer to the manual of the card.

Allow start of acquisition when link is in slave mirror mode and the master is not connected

If this option is enabled, the acquisition is started even if the slave does not receive a configuration from the master within 6 s. It then starts the acquisition with the last valid configuration.

32 Mbit/s Flex frame simulation

The data size per participant is dynamically allocated in a 32Mbit Flex ring and is calculated by ibaPDA. The amount of data depends on the number of analog and digital signals configured in ibaPDA and the smallest timebase configured in the ring.

An integrated simulation function calculates the amounts of data that can be transferred per participant over the FO connection with the 32Mbit Flex protocol.

The data size in bytes of each device on the link and the timebase of the data acquisition on the link (in µs) is needed for the calculation.

The values can be entered manually or retrieved automatically from the current configuration either by clicking the <Estimate values from current configuration> button or by selecting the corresponding link of the ibaFOB card in the module tree.

The devices in the Flex ring and the corresponding data sizes are listed in the table on the left. Address 0 is reserved for the Ethernet channel and is not editable.

The "Flex frame utilization" section shows how much bandwidth is still available. The color of the section changes with the utilization rate.

• • Green: OK

  • Orange: Band width for the Ethernet channel < 3 kB/s

  • Red: Too much data configured.

The data values obtained automatically are estimated first. When the configuration is applied by clicking <OK> or <Apply>, the actual data sizes are shown on the Info tab.

If too much data is configured, you can either reduce the number of signals to be measured or increase the timebase.