PROJECT BACKGROUND:

B&R Industrial Automation GmbH, a leading manufacturer of automation technology and the global center of ABB overseeing machine and factory automation in the business area (ABB Robotics & Discrete Automation), stands as the sole company worldwide to provide a comprehensive portfolio spanning robotics, automation, and software.

CHALLENGE:

The collaboration with JPEmbedded evolved in response to the need to expand the functionality of PLC controllers offered by B&R, with communication standards used in the energy industry. The launch required a thorough understanding of the specific programming environment used by B&R, setup of the appropriate controller, and the integration of the IEC 61850 server library, which is JPEmbedded’s flagship product.

WHY JPEMBEDDED:

Collaborating with JPEmbedded was characterized by a profound understanding of our needs, flexibility, and unwavering commitment. Particularly notable is the high quality of technical support during and after the project, which JPEmbedded continues to provide for both us and our clients.

Deployment of 61850 library on EMH’s and MTE’s HYDROCAL devices

PROJECT BACKGROUND

EMH/MTE is a Swiss/German manufacturer of high voltage power transformer monitoring devices. Power transformers belong to the most expensive equipment of the high voltage grid infrastructure. Their damages might result not only in a very costly overhauls but also in blackouts. This is why, it is so important to constantly monitor the health of the transformers. The most efficient way to do this is by analyzing the gases dissolved in the transformer oil. Early detection of some irregularities helps to take protective actions.

The HYDROCAL 100x device family from EMH facilitates power transformer maintenance by measuring moisture of the oil (H20) and gasses like Hydrogen (H2), Carbon Monoxide (CO), Carbon Dioxide (CO2), Acetylene (C2H2) and Ethylene (C2H4) etc. which are dissolved in the transformer oil.

CHALLENGE

Besides monitoring the health of the transformer, it is also very important to communicate this information in real time to control centers or SCADA systems, so that appropriate actions are taken when necessary. This is why EMH/MTE decided to implement the IEC 61850 protocol, which offers several ways of communication between devices working in the grid. Measurements can be delivered using sampled values (SMV) protocol, or via reporting which is one of the features of client/server MMS protocol. At the beginning EMH/MTE were using protocol conversion gateways to enable IEC 61850 server for its devices, however due to the cost effectiveness in the long run customer decided to replace it with software solution integrated within the device. The challenge was related to the fact that HYDROCAL devices do not feature any operating system but they use a proprietary TCP/IP stack.

WHY JPEMBEDDED

One of the main advantages of the IEC 61850 stack by JPEmbedded is a platform independent design which allows to setup the product virtually on any device. By using well defined abstraction layer (aka driver) it is possible to port IEC 61850 to any target (with or without OS), with relatively small effort. Thanks to this the integration of the IEC 61850 server library on HYDROCAL it turned out to be quite smooth.

JPEmbedded currently offers a number of drivers off the shelf, and in case your device is not supported yet we are happy to assist you by providing sample drivers as well as our consulting services.

Connecting Contrel device to 61850 server

PROJECT BACKGROUND

Contrel Elettronica is an Italian manufacturer of electrical devices like energy meters, current and voltage transformers or power analyzers. With growing popularity of IEC 61850 standard, there was a need to enable connectivity between Contrel EMA-90N power analyzer and SCADA systems using this protocol.

CHALLENGE

Due to the fact that devices were already operating in the field and their hardware platform was optimized for the specific needs of given product, integration of IEC 61850 software library was not an option. With just 30KB of RAM available on the device, software solution was not feasible. Since EMA-90N offers Modbus RTU/TCP communication, using protocol converter turned out to be a viable solution for the problem.

WHY JPEMBEDDED

JPEmbedded offers a family of protocol converters for different applications, starting with PAPILIO which is a low cost option for IoT application where large volumes are expected. For applications which require support of redundancy protocols APIS module could be an alternative. Finally at the high end there is Crabro which could be equipped with wireless communication or fiber Ethernet. It turned out that PAPILIO module in terms of functionality perfectly meets the requirements of Contrel. Additionaly JPEmbedded customised the baseboard so that it fits the housing of the product it is used with.

One of our interesting long-term projects was the implementation of the TCP / IP family for embedded systems. The implementation included the most popular protocols, including UDP, TCP, DHCP, and DNS, as well as TFTP, FTP and HTTP servers and assumed IPv4 and IPv6 compliance.
The project was prepared with the assumption of operating microcontrollers independently of the operating system. Thanks to this, the solution is universal and allows for quick adaptation to a wide range of devices.
The implementation is in line with the “Zero-Copy” principle, in order to improve the data stream processing performance and efficiency. The project was complemented by the later implementation of cryptographic algorithms (TLS / SSL, IPsec, elliptic curves). The TCP / IP stack is currently one of the most popular commercial solutions used in embedded systems.

For many years we have been designing hardware and developing software for automotive systems based on CAN buses for the aftermarket.

The purpose, and at the same time, the main difficulty of this type of projects is to create hardware and software in a way that allows for a non-invasive addition of certain functionalities. One example is enabling a rear view camera and displaying the recorded image on the main screen of a car which did not have it as standard. The key task is to integrate the added functionality with the systems already existing in the vehicle.

CRYPTOREX is a very interesting and innovative project that we have realized for one of our customers. Our task was to build a prototype device for encrypting communications on Ethernet.
One of the requirements was to enable real-time HD video encoding, so the encryption itself was implemented on an FPGA based on an proprietary encryption algorithm. The data transmission was the responsibility of an ARM family microcontroller.
In this case, the biggest challenge was to meet time requirements and ensure proper performance in the data stream handling.

The Minix operating system is a solution for real enthusiasts. It was created by Professor Tanenbaum of Vrije University in Amsterdam, who is a legend and a pioneer in IT. Minix is supposed to be a highly reliable operating system where one application’s crash does not affect the other components. The interesting fact is that in the initial period, the works on the system were conducted by the person, who is considered to be the creator of another currently popular operating system.
Our contribution to the development of Minix was to create USB and Ethernet drivers for the BeagleBone platform. Thanks to cooperation with Professor Tanenbaum, we were invited to his farewell lecture in 2015 which was a real pleasure and a great honour for us.

We perform system tests for controllers and operator panels used in automatics of special vehicles such as cranes, excavators, concrete mixers or dumpers. Our task is to prepare launch a set of tests that verify requirements at the system level.

All tests are created from Structured Text in CODESYS (link to 3S).The testing process is an integral part of the devices certification consistent with Safety Integrity Level (SIL2) standard.

In order to improve testing, we have prepared special tools to control the inputs/outputs of the controller and to make appropriate settings. They allow for partial automation of the performed tests.

Providing the highest quality software is an important area of our business. Our expertise and solid experience combined with our tools enable us to achieve a high efficiency test process.
Since the foundation of our company, we have been developing automated unit tests and integration tests for SIL or ISO 26262 product certification.. One element of the test process is verification of source code coverage at various levels.
In our work we mainly use TESSY environment, and VECTOR’s VectorCAST, and the static code analysis tool (required by the MISRA standard).