Eurotherm has released a new product line that includes the features of the popular Series 2000™ temperature/process controllers with the high speed of Profibus® communications. The 2408F and 2404F instruments support a Profibus DP communications board which permits the controllers to be directly connected to the high speed Profibus network system. The 2408F and 2404F products continue to use the standard Series 2000 plug-in modules so that you can choose a variety of I/O to match the local application requirements. By using the Profibus Series 2000 products, you free the network from instrument related delays by off loading the temperature/process functions directly to the 2408F or 2404F controllers. Therefore, the following tasks can be performed by the Eurotherm controllers: the PID calculations, self-tuning, adaptive tuning, INSTANT ACCURACY™, PDSIO™ diagnostics, Eurotherm's copyrighted CUTBACK overshoot inhibition feature, thermocouple selection, local display and power supply, local control even if the network goes down for maintenance, and more. Due to the patent-pending PDSIO feature, total loop diagnostics (heater health, heater fuse health, contactor health) can be instantly transmitted to the controller AND the Profibus network.

The Series 2000 controllers are explained in our products section of this web site. The standard Series 2000 products support: EIA 232, EIA 422, EIA 485 connections using: Modbus, EI Bi Sync, SPI, or custom protocols. The Profibus communications card is an additional communications option which is available now.

The Profibus card permits communications speeds up to 1.5 M-baud (about 80 times faster than standard 19.2 k-baud) as a node on a Profibus network. In order to establish communications with this node, it is necessary to create a GSD file which maps the Eurotherm read/write parameters into the network. Eurotherm has introduced a Windows-based® software package which simplifies the GSD creation by making it a simple click-and-paste task. The Eurotherm GSD software package is available in English, German, and French.

In addition to the new 2408F and 2404F Profibus instruments, Eurotherm also has a complete line of Profibus compatible SCRs which are called the TU Series.

For more information regarding Profibus application notes or to download the GSD configuration software, visit the Eurotherm Profibus Resource Center.

Around the world, Eurotherm instruments represent One Range -- All Solutions for your factory automation project.