Software Multiplexer For Easy Connection Of Allen-Bradley And Schneider Electric HART Modules To Emerson’s AMS Device Manager

Ti2’s partner, Softing Industrial, introduces smartLink SW-HT – a HART multiplexer software for accessing configuration and diagnostic data via Emerson’s AMS Device Manager or other HART IP-enabled plant asset management applications. Version 1.10 supports Allen-Bradley controllers and remote I/Os in addition to Schneider Electric M580 controllers and drop I/Os.

An increasing number of modern remote IOs are using Ethernet as the connection to the controller. smartLink SW-HT addresses this trend by providing an Ethernet connection to tunnel the HART commands to the remote IOs. smartLink SW-HT provides access from Emerson’s AMS Device Manager to HART field devices connected to Allen-Bradley or Schneider Electric M580 controller HART IO modules or remote I/Os. An integrated HART IP server ensures transparent access to configuration and diagnostic data. Users save time and costs as they do not need additional HART multiplexer hardware. The product comes as a Docker container and is deployed with additional virtual machines, making it easy to use under Windows.

smartLink SW-HT scans all configured HART modules for the connected HART devices and maintains a live list of the devices. This eliminates the need to scan the entire AMS Device Manager device tree when a new HART device is added. The application converts the incoming HART IP commands into the Ethernet-based communication used by the Allen-Bradley and Schneider Electric HART modules. Optimized scheduling of the commands is performed to achieve the optimal communication performance.

To access just one HART device, the smartLink SW-HT software can be downloaded free of charge. The costs for additional licenses are scalable and depend on the number of HART devices to be connected.