Development of a WinCC and profibus network for teaching purposes

The overall outcome for this thesis project is to establish the use of WinCC, Profibus-DP, and Variable Speed Drives (VSD’s) to the Industrial Computer Systems Laboratory (ISCE Lab) for future students to learn from. A number of students have attempted this project in the past, however due to updated software and loss of programs the project was reattempted with a different approach for current software and student needs. The project can be separated into three distinct aims: 1. Configure Profibus-DP communication to all key devices used in the ICSE lab. 2. Set-up the WinCC SCADA system to simulate and control a process using all the equipment in the ICSE lab. 3. Create simple instructional documentation for future students to easily be able to connect Profibus devices and set-up WinCC SCADA control systems in the lab. A total of five unique devices are available in the ICSE lab and were configured which include PLCs, control relays, VSDs, HMIs and a PC with WinCC. Very little documentation was available that detailed how the devices used in this project could be connected together, therefore it was strongly encouraged to focus on developing instructional manuals for future students to learn from, which was the primary aim of this project. To achieve this task, the connectivity and operation of each device and the Profibus-DP protocol had to be thoroughly understood. From there, each individual connection was made, documented and tested before developing a larger network that incorporated all of the devices simultaneously. The outcome of this project resulted in the setup of a Profibus-DP network that utilised most of the components, devices and connections that were available in the ICSE laboratory. The final network succeeded in communicating with all the connected devices and provided basic SCADA functionality such as alarm management, data logging, and HMI interfacing. Also achieved was the creation of five instructional manuals which can allow future students to learn the steps involved in configuring each device to a Profibus-DP network.