The user groups that support the Sercos and FDT open standards have agreed to create an annex to the FDT specification that will make Sercos III the first real-time Ethernet communications standard to support FDT technology.

This technology standardises communications between fieldbus devices and engineering tools and is used by many manufacturers to connect field devices to software environments. Extending the FDT specification to include Sercos III will allow users to configure Sercos III devices via FDT`s DTM device drivers which support detailed device configuration and analyses via graphical interfaces. This will make it easier to set up, parameterise and diagnose fieldbus devices.

“The FDT Group`s collaboration with Sercos offers users the greatest possible transparency and freedom of choice,” suggests the Group’s managing director, Flavio Tolfo. “The combination of these two open standards, supported by many manufacturers, reduces start-up times and increases the security of investments.”

Peter Lutz, managing director of Sercos International sees the joint specification as “another important step on the way to making Sercos III a universal real-time network for all automation applications.”