From left to right: Prof. G. Pritschow (ISW, University of Stuttgart), H. Häckh (Walter Machines), P. Lutz (SERCOS International e.V.), R. Graf (Num Guettinger), D. Hagemann (VDW)

SERCOS III Publicly Available Specification

Earlier this year, the specification for SERCOS III was completed and delivered to the IEC as a Publicly Available Specification (PAS). This step was required for inclusion in the Real-time Ethernet standard (IEC 61784/61158 series), planned for 2007.

The PAS has been approved by the national committees of IEC with a 96% majority and can now be purchased from IEC as IEC/PAS-62410, entitled Real-Time Ethernet SERCOS III. In the United States, you can purchase it from the ANSI Webstore for $218 – www.ansi.org, search for PAS 62410. You can also purchase it from Global Engineering Documents for $291 as a hardcopy or $279 as a download. See http://global.ihs.com and search for keyword SERCOS. (You can join SERCOS N.A. and receive this type of information earlier than the general public and at no charge.)

SERCOS III Hardware

First silicon for the nextX multi-protocol controller
Hilscher recently announced the first silicon for the netX 500, an ARM926 based System on Chip network communication controller, supporting SERCOS III. The engineering samples have been undergoing a series of tests, so far all with positive results. Evaluation Boards, Starter-Kit and Board Support Packages for Windows-CE and Linux will be presented at the SPS/IPC/Drives Fair, November 22-24, 2005 in Nurenberg.

For further information and data on early ordering, please consult the Hilscher website.

FPGA-based SERCON100
As previously announced, the SERCON100 Master and Slave Controllers are available for a Xilinx Spartan-3 FPGA with 400K system gates (XC3S400) in a FT256 BGA housing. 

In addition, the SERCON100S Slave Controller is now available for a Spartan-3 FPGA with 200K system gates (XC3S200) in a TQ144 housing, which further reduces the costs and efforts for a slave hardware design.

SERCOS at SPS/IPC/Drives Show

For the forthcoming SPS/IPC/Drives show in Nuernberg/Germany (November 22-24), the SERCOS group has again organized a joint booth in hall 6 (stand 110) under the motto of "SERCOS goes Ethernet". Several companies will be using this occasion to present the first SERCOS III based products. 

An eye-catching demo will be shown on the new C2C profile for SERCOS III. C2C stands for "Controller-to-Controller Synchronization & Communication." In the demo, 3 motion controllers –- each controlling 8 servo drives -- are connected with each other via SERCOS III. All devices are synchronized with each other and communicate directly using cross-communication. The devices exchange lead axis data which are calculated by the distributed motion controllers. 

An additional demo shows how Standard Ethernet nodes are connected to a SERCOS III network using the IP channel for commissioning and diagnosis purposes. In addition, the PackProfile multi-vendor demo and several products and components for the SERCOS interface will be displayed. 

The following exhibitors will be present in the booth: Automata, Bachmann, Baumüller, Bosch Rexroth, Hilscher, Lust, Parker Hannifin, Honeywell, ISW, Manz Automation, Rockwell Automation.