초록 ▼

Low voltage logic circuitry is used to permit an entire subsystem of an industrial controller to be placed within a hazardous environment to receive a high speed serial link and undertake the control of multiple control points without expensive and awkward long cable runs and electrically isolating

Low voltage logic circuitry is used to permit an entire subsystem of an industrial controller to be placed within a hazardous environment to receive a high speed serial link and undertake the control of multiple control points without expensive and awkward long cable runs and electrically isolating circuits for each cable run. Energy and bandwidth limiting on the high speed link allows power levels commensurate with high data rates yet intrinsic safety of the media allowing it to freely pass in and out of the hazardous area. A mixture of intrinsically safe and non-intrinsically safe equipment on the same logical rack is allowed through a bus isolator providing isolated data communication in backplane fashion between modules while wholly isolating power transmission along the backplane.

대표청구항 ▼

[ We claim:] [1.] A bus industrial controller for use with an industrial controller having a first and second unit each having an internal multi-conductor bus having data lines and power lines communicating data and power, respectively, between functional modules of the unit attached to the bus, the

[ We claim:] [1.] A bus industrial controller for use with an industrial controller having a first and second unit each having an internal multi-conductor bus having data lines and power lines communicating data and power, respectively, between functional modules of the unit attached to the bus, the modules configured to receive the data and power and provide I/O connection to a controlled process the bus interface comprising:a first and second bus connector configured to mate to a first bus of the first unit and a second bus of the second unit, respectively, the first bus connector being disposed within a hazardous environment, and the second bus connector being disposed within a non-hazardous environment;a galvanic isolator unit disposed within a housing that is positioned between the first and second bus connectors providing electrical isolation across a plurality of conductor pairs between the first and second bus connectors for conducting only data therebetween; andan energy limiting power converter receiving an external source of non-intrinsically safe electrical power and limiting the power at an output of the power converter to a level to avoid the generation of sparks with sufficient energy to ignite a flammable atmosphere during a fault condition, the output of the energy limiting power converter connecting to the power lines of the second bus connector for supplying power thereto and not to the first bus connector.