Advantages of a PC Based HART Communicator

Overview:

It's now time to upgrade to a new HART Communicator. Your old hand held HART Communicator is obsolete and receives limited support. You shop around and find that it costs between $3000 and $7000 for a new hand held HART Communicator. A Google search reveals a PC based alternative. Will the PC alternative perform as required? What should you look for?

The PC based HART Communicator has been around for many years, but until recently it has not been able to replace the hand held HART communicator. The main reason is that it could not communicate at the DD level with all the devices in the DD library. Recent developments have eliminated that problem and now is a good time to review the capabilities of a PC based HART Communicator.