Profibus DP Slave to Notifier NCA2 - NFS2 Multiport Gateway

The FieldServer PROFIBUS DP Slave gateway makes it easy for integrators to interface devices utilizing various building or industrial protocols to PROFIBUS DP Slave networks. As the leading manufacturer of protocol gateways in the building automation industry, FieldServer has developed the largest driver library in the industry and the widest range of gateways available, designed to meet the needs of system integrators.

The FS-B3512-05 provides a wealth of features to enable data transfer between different devices and networks utilizing serial (RS-232 or RS-485), Ethernet, LonWorks and PROFIBUS DP Master. The multiport design allows for serial-to-serial, serial-to-Ethernet, LonWorks and PROFIBUS DP Slave interfaces. With a larger point count than any similar gateway, the FieldServer FS-B35 series provides a single device solution for your networking needs. The FieldServer is designed to meet a wide range of interface needs and it is easily configured as a master or a slave.

Configuration is easy, but if needed, configuration services are available from FieldServer support team. The proven FieldServer support team is recognized around the world for its knowledge of the many different protocols involved in building automation.

FieldServer continuously strives to enhance our gateways and the latest FS-B35 series includes a major software upgrade, resulting in significant enhancements in performance, including:

• 40% higher point count capability - some protocols are major memory hogs, and the result is that they can slow down performance of any gateway. With the greater memory enhancement, the FS-B35 Series can easily handle all of the drivers extremely well.
• Memory utilization monitoring - the user is provided with application memory statistics (in both kB and as a percentage of the available memory) enabling optimal matching of device models and configurations to specific applications.
• Improved stability and performance under high loads - the new software enhances the operation making it more forgiving to configuration problems with fewer crashes when capacity limits are reached.
• USB firmware update - this allows the firmware or configuration of the FieldServer to be updated from a USB flash drive whenever it is inserted, enabling users to easily update firmware in the field. This is a great time saver if you have multiple FieldServers in the field.

The FieldServer Profibus DP Slave driver can be used to emulate a single slave station on a Profibus network. DP Masters can open a connection of up to 244 Bytes of Input and 244 Bytes of Output data, but not exceeding a combined total of 416 Bytes to the FieldServer. The FieldServer can be added to the Profibus network with the use of the supplied GSD file for the ANYBUS card. Connection to the Profibus network is via a DB9 port on the ANYBUS card. 

The NCA2/NFS2-3030 Serial driver allows the FieldServer to record data from Notifier NCA2 or NFS2-3030 panels over RS-232 as per NFS2-3030/NCA-2 EIA-232 Protocol & Data Formats 53219 Rev A 1/3/2008. There is no active polling by this driver; the communications are oneway through the panel's printer or CRT port. The FieldServer acts as a Client; receives messages and records the status of a Panel. The panel MUST output messages in160 characters ASCII format in English.

This driver is not capable of emulating a Notifier NCA2 or NFS2-3030 panel.

The NCA2 controls all the devices (e.g. 3030, 640 panels) connected on the Notifier network. Each Fire Alarm Panel on Network is considered as a Node. 240 Nodes can exist on one network. NFS2-3030 can exist on a network or be self-standing.

NCA2 interacts with other Fire Alarm Panels, records the status of the panels and sends the events to printer and CRT ports. FieldServer captures these events in text form, parses and stores them in Data Arrays. These Data Arrays can be monitored by third party tools. Since the FieldServer does not actively poll for data, the accuracy and timeliness of the stored data is limited to the frequency of update messages that the Notifier Fire Panel issues.

If a networked panel does not send the 'CLEARED' message for latched points via the NCA2 it is not possible to detect cleared points unless a system reset is done. It is possible to configure the FieldServer to clear on reset message from NCA2. See Appendix A.2 for more detail.

Please note that the FieldServer can be configured with a large number of points. The point limits purchased with the FieldServer prevent the entire database from being accessed in any one application. It is therefore strongly advisable to ensure that only the point addresses of interest are configured, and that the FieldServer is purchased with the correct point count.

The types of Notifier messages supported by this driver are summarized in Section 5.1. A detailed table presented in Appendix C.1 shows each type of NCA2/NFS2-3030 message the FieldServer recognizes and the effect that it has on the status of the points in the Data Array.