HART Protocol
Encyclopedia
The HART Communications Protocol (Highway Addressable Remote Transducer Protocol) is an early implementation of Fieldbus
, a digital industrial automation
protocol. Its most notable advantage is that it can communicate over legacy 4-20 mA analog instrumentation wiring, sharing the pair of wires used by the older system. According to Emerson, due to the huge installed base of 4-20 mA systems throughout the world, the HART Protocol was one of the most popular industrial protocols today. HART protocol made a good transition protocol for users who were comfortable using the legacy 4-20 mA signals, but wanted to implement a "smart" protocol. Industries seem to be using Profibus DP/PA and Foundation fieldbus (also by Rosemount) more as users become familiar with later technology and look to take advantage of the enhanced diagnostics they can provide.
The protocol was developed by Rosemount Inc., built off the Bell 202 early communications standard, in the mid-1980s as proprietary digital communication protocol for their smart field instruments. Soon it evolved into HART. In 1986, it was made an open protocol. Since then, the capabilities of the protocol have been enhanced by successive revisions to the specification.
In peer-to-peer mode (analog/digital) the digital signals are overlaid on the 4-20 mA loop current.
Both the 4-20 mA current and the digital signal are valid output values from the instrument. The polling
address of the instrument is set to "0". Only one instrument can be put on each instrument cable signal pair. One signal, generally specified by the user, is specified to be the 4-20mA signal. Other signals are sent digitally on top of the 4-20mA signal. For example, pressure can be sent as 4-20mA, representing a range of pressures, and temperature can be sent digitally over the same wires.
In multi-drop mode (digital) only the digital signals are used. The analog loop current is fixed at 4 mA. In multidrop mode it is possible to have more than one instruments on one signal cable. HART revisions 3 through 5 allowed polling addresses of the instruments to be in the range 1-15. HART 6 and later allowed address up to 63. Each meter needs to have a unique address.
Master communication to a new devices starts with the maximum preamble length (20 bytes) and is later reduced once the preamble size for the current device is determined.
The newer scheme utilizes 38 bits to specify the device address. This address is requested from the device using either Command 0, or Command 11
Command 0 and Command 11 are used to request the device number
field is used by the slave to inform the master whether it completed the task
and what its current health status is.
is composed of an XOR of all the bytes starting from the Start Byte and Ending with the last byte of the data field, including those bytes.
Fieldbus
Fieldbus is the name of a family of industrial computer network protocols used for real-time distributed control, now standardized as IEC 61158....
, a digital industrial automation
Automation
Automation is the use of control systems and information technologies to reduce the need for human work in the production of goods and services. In the scope of industrialization, automation is a step beyond mechanization...
protocol. Its most notable advantage is that it can communicate over legacy 4-20 mA analog instrumentation wiring, sharing the pair of wires used by the older system. According to Emerson, due to the huge installed base of 4-20 mA systems throughout the world, the HART Protocol was one of the most popular industrial protocols today. HART protocol made a good transition protocol for users who were comfortable using the legacy 4-20 mA signals, but wanted to implement a "smart" protocol. Industries seem to be using Profibus DP/PA and Foundation fieldbus (also by Rosemount) more as users become familiar with later technology and look to take advantage of the enhanced diagnostics they can provide.
The protocol was developed by Rosemount Inc., built off the Bell 202 early communications standard, in the mid-1980s as proprietary digital communication protocol for their smart field instruments. Soon it evolved into HART. In 1986, it was made an open protocol. Since then, the capabilities of the protocol have been enhanced by successive revisions to the specification.
Modes
There are two main operational modes of HART instruments: analog/digital mode, and multidrop mode.In peer-to-peer mode (analog/digital) the digital signals are overlaid on the 4-20 mA loop current.
Both the 4-20 mA current and the digital signal are valid output values from the instrument. The polling
Polling (computer science)
Polling, or polled operation, in computer science, refers to actively sampling the status of an external device by a client program as a synchronous activity. Polling is most often used in terms of input/output , and is also referred to as polled or software driven .Polling is sometimes used...
address of the instrument is set to "0". Only one instrument can be put on each instrument cable signal pair. One signal, generally specified by the user, is specified to be the 4-20mA signal. Other signals are sent digitally on top of the 4-20mA signal. For example, pressure can be sent as 4-20mA, representing a range of pressures, and temperature can be sent digitally over the same wires.
In multi-drop mode (digital) only the digital signals are used. The analog loop current is fixed at 4 mA. In multidrop mode it is possible to have more than one instruments on one signal cable. HART revisions 3 through 5 allowed polling addresses of the instruments to be in the range 1-15. HART 6 and later allowed address up to 63. Each meter needs to have a unique address.
Packet Structure
The HART Packet has the following structure| Field Name | Length (Bytes) | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Preamble | 5-20 | Synchronization and Carrier Detect |
| Start Byte | 1 | Specifies Master Number |
| Address | 1-5 | Specifies slave, Specifies Master and Indicates Burst Mode |
| Command | 1 | Numerical Value for the command to be executed |
| Number of Data Bytes | 1 | Indicates the size of the Data Field |
| Status | Master (0) Slave (2) | Execution and Health Reply |
| Data | 0-253 | Data associated with the command |
| Checksum | 1 | XOR of all bytes from Start Byte to Last byte of Data |
Preamble
Currently all the newer devices implement 5 byte preamble, since anything greater reduces the communication speed. However, masters are responsible for backwards support.Master communication to a new devices starts with the maximum preamble length (20 bytes) and is later reduced once the preamble size for the current device is determined.
Start Delimiter
This byte contains the Master number and specifies the communication packet is starting...Address
Specifies the destination address as implemented in one of the HART schemes. The original addressing scheme used only 4 bits to specify the device address, which limited the number of devices to 16 including the master.The newer scheme utilizes 38 bits to specify the device address. This address is requested from the device using either Command 0, or Command 11
Command
This is a 1 byte numerical value representing which command is to be executed.Command 0 and Command 11 are used to request the device number
Status
The status field is absent for the master and is 2 bytes for the slave. Thisfield is used by the slave to inform the master whether it completed the task
and what its current health status is.
Checksum
ChecksumChecksum
A checksum or hash sum is a fixed-size datum computed from an arbitrary block of digital data for the purpose of detecting accidental errors that may have been introduced during its transmission or storage. The integrity of the data can be checked at any later time by recomputing the checksum and...
is composed of an XOR of all the bytes starting from the Start Byte and Ending with the last byte of the data field, including those bytes.