Fisher-rosemount Systems, Inc

Rosemount Inc.

Emerson Process Management Limited

Roger Benson

Brian Alan Franchuk

Anthony Dean Ferguson

Todd Mitchell Toepke

Alan Roger Dewey

Alden Chester Russell, Iii

Mehul Rajeshbhai Dalal

Dale Warren Borgeson

Stephen Anthony Zielinski

Gabriel A Maalouf

Sameer Parshuram Gorivale

Carro Lynel Boyd

A portable field maintenance tool may perform one or more tasks, such as communicating with a field device, powering a field device, diagnosing a field device, or diagnosing a communication link in a plant environment to which a field device is connected. The portable field maintenance tool may interact with field devices configured according to a number of different communication protocols, such as the HART protocol and the Fieldbus protocol. The portable field maintenance tool may be energy limited and fault tolerant, and may operate in compliance with Intrinsic Safety standards, enabling use of the portable field maintenance tool in hazardous areas.

Portable field maintenance tool with resistor network for intrinsically safe operation

Portable field maintenance tool configured for multiple process control communication protocols

Portable field maintenance tool with a bus for powering and communicating with a field device

A connector assembly for a portable field device testing includes a two-wire communication line to provide communication between a handheld maintenance tool and a field device, a first two-prong plug to provide power and communication signals to the field device and a shunt plug to provide power to the field device using the two-wire communication line.

Two-prong plug of a single lead set for supplying fieldbus communication and power from a handheld maintenance tool in a hazardous area

Method for supplying fieldbus communication and power from a handheld maintenance tool in a hazardous area using a single lead set

A field device is configured to send and receive data over an industrial process network. The field device includes a processor and a communications unit communicatively connected to the industrial process network. The communications unit is configured to send and receive the data over the industrial process network via a first communications protocol at a first data rate. The communications unit is connected to communicate with the processor via a second communications protocol at a second data rate that is greater than the first data rate.

Communications unit for an industrial process network

Devices in a process control system communicate by data messages over a communication medium segment. Each device includes a communication controller that includes a data queue and a queue of received message objects. The data queue stores a plurality of messages received on the communication medium. The received message objects contain information about a corresponding message in the data queue.

Low latency data packet reception and processing

Devices in a process control system communicate by data messages over a communication medium segment. Each device includes a communication controller that maintains an order of occurrence of events received from and transmitted to a communication medium. The communication controller includes an order of occurrence identification (OOO_ID) counter and an event queue memory. The event queue memory sequentially stores an event type identifier for each event that is processed by the communication controller. The OOO_ID counter provides an OOO_ID to associate with each event type identifier.

Management of event order of occurrence on a network

Devices in a process control system communicate by data messages over a communication medium segment. Each device includes a communication controller that includes a received data memory and a plurality of received message objects. When a message is received, a received message object is activated, and the initial position of a write pointer in the received data memory is stored in the received message object. During message reception, if a hardware device determines that the message is to be ignored, the received message object is deactivated, thereby preventing further writing of the message to the received data memory. The write pointer is then preferably returned to its initial position as stored in the received message object.

Discarding a partially received message from a data queue

Devices in a process control system communicate by data messages over a communication medium segment. Each device includes a communication controller that automatically time stamps events associated with received and transmitted messages.

Communication controller with automatic time stamping

A device on a process control network transmits scheduled messages at periodic intervals and unscheduled messages between scheduled message transmissions. A dynamic time remaining value is produced by subtracting a current timer value from a next scheduled event time each time the timer is incremented. If the time required to transmit an unscheduled message is greater than the time remaining value, the message is not transmitted.

Communication controller for coordinating transmission of scheduled and unscheduled messages

A communication controller in a device on a network automatically prevents transmission of data onto the network in response to a transmit request from a CPU of the device if a message is being received or has been received but not read or acknowledged.

System and method for preventing transmission during message reception

A diagnostic tool has a packet based network medium attachment unit, a measurement interface, a network interface, and a microprocessor for reading DLPDUs from a network segment and for taking simultaneous measurements of DLPDUs on the segment. The measurement data is associated with a stored DLPDU if the DLPDU is still active on the network segment when the measurement data is read by the microprocessor. The diagnostic tool utilizes a currently active attribute to determine the status of a DLPDU.

System and method for associating a DLPDU received by an interface chip with a data measurement made by an external circuit

The system has a control center, a time master device and a plurality of distributed, time slave field devices in synchronization with a master clock of the time master device. The time master device periodically transmits a time distribution data unit. Each time slave field device has a timer adjustment element, a fixed rate clock and a variable clock. The timer adjustment element calculates a frequency ratio between the master clock and the fixed rate clock and uses the frequency ratio to calculate adjustment coefficients to adjust a local sense of time for each field device, such that a time stamp of each field device is synchronized to the master clock.

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Eden Prairie, MN, United States of America

Roger Benson