SPA-bus Protocol

SPA-bus (Substation Protection Acquisition bus) is a proprietary protocol used in ABB protection relays and substation automation products.

The protocol is used in substation automation with one master and multiple slaves configuration.

Physical Layer

Usually a RS232 (V.24) serial connection with the following characteristics:

  • 1 start bit
  • 8 data bits
  • 1 parity bit (even)
  • 1 stop bit

Protocol Features

  • Master-slave communication
  • Channel-based data organization
  • Time synchronization (Channel 0 only)
  • Event logging and retrieval
  • Data validation and acknowledgement

Data Channels

Channel Data Type Description
0 Time Time synchronization (Channel 0 only)
0 Last events Event logging (Channel 0 only)
Various Protection data Protection relay measurements and status

Acknowledgement Codes

Code Description
2 Overflow
6 Slave does not contain all data requested in the message
7 Addressed data is impossible to write or read
8 Data in write message not validated
9 Undefined negative acknowledgment

Checksum

The checksum is calculated using hexadecimal digits of data XOR:ed together. If unused, the checksum field contains 'XX'.

SerialMon Support

  • Frame parsing and validation
  • Protocol decoding
  • Data tracking and monitoring
  • Acknowledgement code interpretation
  • Channel-based data organization