Conrad has enhanced its portfolio of networking testing devices by adding the first purpose built handheld network tester designed for commissioning, preventative maintenance and troubleshooting of PROFINET Industrial Ethernet networks.
The new, rugged NaviTEK IE copper and fibre troubleshooter from IDEAL Networks has been developed to ease and simplify the process of testing cabling in Industrial Ethernet networks based upon the PROFINET protocol. Until now, the only way to perform this testing was to use a laptop computer along with specialist software, which could prove cumbersome in the tight spaces that networks are typically installed in.
The new tester offers the same feature set as the popular IDEAL Networks NaviTEK NT PRO and also includes additional tools to meet the specific needs of Industrial Ethernet, especially relating the packet delivery time that is critical for proper operation. The inbuilt system health check feature on the NaviTEK IE allows technicians to identify issues before they cause failures that result in expensive downtime. The intuitive menu uses traffic light coding to show how each device on the network is operating. Clicking on any device with an issue delves deeper into any issues discovered, allowing maintenance to be performed before failure occurs.
“Businesses rely on their networks these days and downtime is costly so technicians are under pressure to deliver 100% uptime. We have added the NaviTEK IE to our range to ensure that our customers have the best tools available to keep their businesses running smoothly” said Susanne Storch, product manager at Conrad.
When working with copper cabling, the NaviTEK IE displays the correct wiring colours for the relevant protocol and measures the cable length. This allows the location of the cable fault to be detected as well as determining whether the fault is a split pair, open, short or a miswire.
Tim Widdershoven, Marketing Director at IDEAL Networks added “Locating cable faults quickly is particularly important for Industrial Ethernet applications. Unlike cabling in a static office environment, factories often have mobile network connected devices, such as robots, sensors or conveyors. This means there is an increased risk of sustaining cable damage.”
For fibre installations, an optional SFP module allows the testing of different wavelength as well as the measurement of optical RX power received. Optical cable faults such as contaminated connectors, breaks or bends can also be identified.
The NaviTEK IE includes network troubleshooting features including the ability to detect incorrect device names, duplicate IP addresses, network latency issues and packet loss. Challenging intermittent faults can be found via the handy event log feature.
The NETMAP comparison tool can scan the entire network and save this for comparison to future scans to identify devices that have been added or removed, as well as those that have changed – perhaps as a result of automatic updates. The NaviTEK IE also includes the ability to produce PDF or CSV reports that can be stored or shared via the IDEAL Anywhere™ mobile application.
Further information on the NaviTEK IE can be found here: https://www.conrad.com/p/cable-tester-ideal-networks-navitek-ie-profinet-tester-networks-1998734
