Communication Server Handling

ABB Field Information Manager Learning Center

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Add a Communication Server

To establish a connection, a new Communication Server must be added.

Click the "Add Server" button within the top menu to open the "Add Communication Server" dialog. Within this dialog, the available Communication Servers are listed, grouped in local and remote types. The dialog offers automatically only types that have a license (if required) and a suitable Device Package. Each of them has the following properties:

  • Name: By default the same as the Communication Server type, but can be changed by the user. The name is used as the Communication Server's identifier (limited to 64 characters).
  • IP Address (remote only): IP address of the network node running the Connectivity Service, must be entered by the user.
  • Port (remote only): By default the port number of the Connectivity Service running on the network node, can be changed by the user.

Select the required Communication Server type(s), change the properties if required and click the "Add" button.

Note:
The specified Communication Server must be reachable by the Field Information Manager Server node.
 

The new Communication Server will then appear as a Device Tile, within the Topology Tree. The Hardware Scan functionality will be available as an option in the Device Tile Context Menu.

Add_Communication_Server_Dialog

For more information about supported Communication Server types, please refer to FIM Connectivities website.

Remove a Communication Server

To remove an existing Communication Server, open the server's Context Menu via the Device Tile and then select "DELETE".

Delete_Communication_Server

Access Communication Server settings

Change of Communication Server settings is available via DEVICE SETTINGS view of Communication Server Device Tile Context Menu.

  1. Open the Topology Tool from Field Information Manager Tools Menu.
  2. Select the HOME object appearing on top of the Topology Tree.
  3. The Communication Servers are listed on the right.
  4. Select one Communication Server Device Tile and open the Context Menu via “three dots” button appearing in the middle of the Communication Server Device Tile.
  5. From the Context Menu select the item DEVICE SETTINGS to open the Communication Server settings view.

Notes on Communication Behavior

Configuration Change of the Connect Service
If the configuration of the Connect Service has changed, a restart of the computer or server node running the Connect Service is required. Only by doing so, it can be ensured that the recent changes are taken over. 
This is explicitly required if e.g. the IP configuration of the network adapter (that is assigned to the FIM Profinet Connect Service) has changed. 

Interruption of Communication with Connect Service
It is possible that the communication with the Connect Service is interrupted, e.g. by stopping the service or due to network issues. In very rare cases, it might be required to re-open the current view or to restart the FIM Application in order to receive updates from the Connect Service.

Field Device Visibility in FIM according to System 800xA Configuration
Field Information Manager only displays field devices of I/O modules that are configured correctly in System 800xA. 

Please note:
The application behavior described in this section is the default one, it might differ in customer-specific systems.

Troubleshooting

Failed Hardware Scan
A hardware scan can fail due to various reasons.
HW Scan Errors
Note: Certificate exchange is described Connectivites of FIM website.

Device is not identified by the Auto Scanning - HART modem
Please use the Context Menu item DIAGNOSTIC for the HART Communication Server and start a diagnostic scan for the com port where the HART modem is connected to.
The scan will run in multi drop mode and will go through all possible channels and baud rates, and the scan will report the identified field devices right now in the result list.
If the diagnostic scan is not able to identify the field device, then please validate that the HART modem connects successfully to the computer node, and that the device connects to the HART modem in a proper way. In most cases a wrong or defect hardware setup between computer node, HART modem and device is the problem cause.
If the problem still persists, then please get in contact with ABB technical support.

Basic Concept

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