Not only is it possible with IDX but simple, quick and cost effective.
Anybus is your ideal solution, dominant when it comes to converting between Fieldbus, Ethernet and serial protocols. Integrate your RS232,422 & 485 equipment to a PROFIBUS/PROFINET control system without any changes to your device.
Simply connect, configure and you're done! Simply IDX it!
Recently IDX was contacted by a client that wished to get NMEA data strings from a Garmin industrial GPS receiver into the plants PROFIBUS SCADA system.
It was quickly identified that an AB7000 - Anybus Communicator would be the most effective device for the job.
Within the NMEA protocol, various messages are pushed along the data line, each ASCII strings provides new information.
A                  Status A=active or V=Void.
After sniffing the ASCII string using software included with the Anybus communicator, we were able to truncate and map relevant values through to the Profibus driver. The main interest of the plant was to know the location of their rail equipment at all times, in order to prevent a collision. Thus the only relevant info would be the latitude and longitude, in addition we also mapped a few status bytes and integrated a checksum to confirm the data being read as accurate.