FOUNDATION FFI Fieldbus Interface

The FOUNDATION Fieldbus Interface (FFI) allows a ControlWave to support bi-directional multi-drop digital communication between fieldbus devices on an H1 bus and host communication on a High-Speed Ethernet (HSE) network.

FOUNDATION fieldbus (FF) provides a worldwide industry standard open architecture that allows process automation systems to maximize the use of intelligent field devices. The utilization of digital field devices brings the power of asset management to improve plant performance by delivering higher data quality to those making operational decisions.

FF consists of two separate bus networks. The first is the 31.25 Kb (H1) bus for multi-drop connection to 2-wire field devices. The second is the 10/100 Mbps Ethernet control network backbone with HSE protocol which passes fieldbus data bi-directionally to a ControlWave or to the Asset Management Suite (AMS) for integration within the PlantWeb architecture.

The FFI brings the benefits of digital field devices to a wide range of industry applications including oil & gas and water & wastewater.

The FFI consists of the following components: a 3-slot chassis, the FFbus Interface module (FFI CPU module), and up to two FFbus H1 segment modules (H1 modules).

The 3-slot chassis can be used as a stand-alone device that communicates to any ControlWave RTU through an Ethernet connection and receives power independently, or connected directly to a ControlWave Micro where it receives power through the backplane. Slot 1 of the chassis holds the FFI CPU module that allows communication with a ControlWave RTU and an optional PC running Emerson’s Asset Management Suite (AMS) or other software.