I have a system that uses a PC for the SPC end of a process with the cell controller being a Siemens PLC. The PC software is written in Delphi 7 and the previous engineer decided to write all of the PC/PLC communication with a digital I/O board, however the workcell has Profibus for all of the communication outside of the PC. I would like to update this so that the PC communicates on the Profibus.
Currently I am testing out the Hilscher CIF 50-DPS Card (PCI Profibus Slave Card), which was reccomended by the manufactuer of our industrial PCs. I'm running into problems thus far getting the communications started and suspect that I need to have a 3rd party component to make this work. Does anyone out there have experience doing Profibus communication in Delphi? Should I be looking at a different card or is there a component or example code out there for the card I have?
Thank you for any help,
Jeff Patrick