COLLABORATION BY NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS AND HONEYWELL
YIELDS COMMON PLATFORM FOR IEEE 1451.4 SMART SENSORS
Provides seamless interoperability, reduces system
set-up costs
COLUMBUS, Ohio (June 24, 2004) - Honeywell (NYSE: HON)
smart sensor products and National Instruments (NI) LabVIEW and
data acquisition products now operate on a common platform compatible
with IEEE 1451.4, the Transducer Electronic Data Sheet (TEDS) standard
recently released in final form.
Along with other major sensor manufacturers, Honeywell helped develop
the common platform, called Sensors Plug&Play, by using NI LabVIEW
graphical programming software to program its sensors. As a result,
test and measurement customers can now take advantage of seamless
interoperability between Honeywell Sensotec smart sensors and signal
conditioners and NI data acquisition hardware and software.
A smart TEDS sensor contains an integrated EEPROM chip which carries
scaling, calibration and user information, facilitating digital
interrogation of the sensor's configuration data. The customer's
data acquisition system reads both the smart TEDS sensor analog
signal as well as the EEPROM configuration information. By automating
test and measurement system set-up through a common TEDS platform,
engineers and scientists can cut set-up time and costs - while improving
reliability - by eliminating manual data entry.
"We know from customer feedback that system set-up can comprise
25 percent of overall measurement cost-the second highest cost after
the purchase price of hardware and software," said Brian Betts,
NI data acquisition product manager. "The combined offering
of Sensors Plug&Play products from National Instruments and
virtually all of the Sensotec sensors from Honeywell significantly
reduces set-up time, which saves our customers money by helping
themget data faster. The end result is a more affordable and accurate
measurement system."
Martin Armson, director of Marketing and International Sales for
Honeywell Sensotec sensors, notes that smart sensor technology based
on the Sensors Plug& Play platform does much more in addition
to improving accuracy and productivity. "This technology also
eases the logistics of managing test and measurement systems that
can comprise hundreds or even thousand of sensors," Armson
said. "The automatic interrogation feature reduces 'cabling
and labeling' problems and facilitates inventorying and control
of expensive sensors." The end result, according to Armson:
"You can spend much more time refining your measurement system,
and much less time looking for your sensors."
Armson noted that customers with legacy sensors that lack TEDS
EEPROM chips can still take advantage of the new technology. "We've
got a kit that they can use to retrofit any of our sensors by burning
an EEPROM and mounting it in the connector, the sensor itself, or
a special adaptor attached to the sensor cable." Another option
for PC-enabled customers is Virtual TEDS, a library housed at NI's
Web site that offers sensor data in the standard TEDS format for
direct download to customers' data acquisition and signal conditioning
systems. "At the very least," Armson said, "customers
can take advantage of the 'paperless calibration' part of plug and
play by accessing calibration data from their manufacturer's Web
site." He noted that Honeywell already has online calibration
data available for all of its Sensotec sensors.
Honeywell was particularly well placed to collaborate with NI on
the common TEDS platform. For more than eight years, the company
had supplied plug-and-play implementations based on the TEDS principle
through its SIG CAL technology. "As the issue date for IEEE
1451.4 approached," noted Ken Rastatter, senior design engineer,
"we simply changed our proprietary protocol to match the one
dictated by the standard. And working with National Instruments
to create a common platform based on LabVIEW was a natural."
Honeywell Sensotec and National Instruments will hold a joint Webcast
on July 28 to discuss the industry impact of TEDS technology and
demonstrate NI Sensors Plug&Play hardware working with Honeywell
sensors. Event registration is available at www.ni.com/events.
Honeywell Sensotec smart sensors compatible with the Sensors Plug&Play
platform can be ordered from the company's online catalog at www.honeywell.com/sensotec.
The catalog is also available by calling 1-800-848-6564. |
