STAGEIPD STAGE DEV (25 Mar 2026)Setting Up an ABB Drive for Fieldbus Control

Fieldbus communication reduces wiring costs when compared to traditional hardwired input/output connections. FENA-21 is an optional fieldbus adapter module available for ABB drives that provide an interface to Modbus/TCP, EtherNet/IP, or PROFINET IO. Through the fieldbus adapter module, you can give control commands, transfer process data to and from the drive, read actual values and drive status or reset a drive fault.

This ‘Tech Tip’ is to help set up an ABB drive for fieldbus control with the FENA-21. As an example, we will show you how to set up a FENA-21 on ABB’s ACS580 drive and configure frequency control using Modus/TCP.

FENA-21 comes standard with your drive if it features a plus code of +K475 and is enabled inside the drive parameters. However, if the drive is not factory equipped with the module and you want to add the fieldbus adapter later on, you need to enable the communication between the drive and the fieldbus adapter module with parameter 50.01 FBA A enabled. This is done after installing the adapter and powering up the drive. Each ABB drive has a specific option slot for the adapter module. The selection must correspond to the slot where the adapter module is installed. For example, if the adapter module is installed in slot 1, you must select slot 1.

50.01 FBA A enable 1 = Option slot 1

You can select how the drive should react to a fieldbus communication break with 50.02 FBA A comm loss func. No action will be taken as default. But if a function is set for this parameter (i.e. fault), then you can define the time between communication break detection and the selected action with 50.03 FBA A comm loss t out. The default time out is set at 0.3 sec.

50.02 FBA A comm loss func: 1 = Fault
50.03 FBA A comm loss t out: 3.0 s

You can select application-specific values for the rest of the parameters in group 50 Fieldbus adapter (FBA), starting from 50.04. In this example we configure operation type and scaling to be chosen automatically according to the current active operation mode in Parameter 19.01

50.04 FBA A ref1 type: 0 = Speed or frequency

Fieldbus adapter module configuration parameters needs to be configured in group 51 FBA A settings. As a minimum, you will need to set the required node address and the communication profile. In this example we are using the Modbus/TCP protocol and the ABB Drives - Enhanced profile. The IP address is set to 192.168.0.16 and network mask as 255.255.255.0

51.01 FBA A type: 128 = ETHERNET
51.02 Protocol/Profile 1 = MB/TCP ABB E
51.04 IP configuration: 0 = Static IP
51.05 IP address 1: 192
51.06 IP address 2: 168
51.07 IP address 3: 0
51.08 IP address 4: 16
51.09 Subnet CIDR: 24

The process data transferred to and from the drive, needs to be defined in parameter groups 52 FBA A data in and 53 FBA A data out. Note that depending on the communication protocol and profile being used, the Control word and Status word may already be configured to be sent/received by the communication system.

52.01 FBA A data in1: 01.14 (Output power)
52.03 FBA A data in3: 01.11 (DC voltage)
53.01 FBA A data out1: 28.26 (Constant frequency 1)
53.03 FBA A data out3: 28.27 (Constant frequency 2)

Save the valid parameter values to permanent memory by setting parameter 96.07 Parameter save manually to Save. This ensures that operation can continue after cycling the power.

Validate the FENA-21 configuration parameters by setting parameter 51.27 FBA A par refresh to Configure. After refreshing, the value reverts automatically to Done.

Configure control location EXT1 to allow control and reference signals to come from the fieldbus. In this example we are selecting the fieldbus interface as the source of the start and stop commands, speed reference, and fault reset. The start/stop commands and reference are according to the ABB Drives profile.

20.01 Ext1 commands: 12 = Fieldbus A
22.11 Speed ref1 source: 4 = FB A ref1 Selects
31.11 Fault reset selection: 06.1.7

After the adapter module has been initialised by the drive, you must prepare the client for communication with the module.

For any additional information, we recommend you check out the below link to the FENA-21 user’s manual PDF:
https://library.e.abb.com/public/d6a31af1808043ba8ef53980031041ea/EN_FENA01_11_21_UM_E_A4.pdf

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Setting Up an ABB Drive for Fieldbus Control

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