DNA-ECAT-400 – 4 Slot EtherCAT based I/O Cube

• Fully EtherCAT compliant
• Flexible enough to match your application
• Compatible with UEI’s popular DNA-series I/O boards
• Over 60 I/O boards available
• Standard Ethernet 100BaseT EtherCAT Interface
• 2 kHz update rates
• Rugged: -40°C to +85°C, 5g vibration, 100g shock
• 350 Vrms Isolation

The CPU Module occupies the top portion of the Cube and provides the CPU, Ethernet Network Interface Controller (NIC), indicator lights, timing/trigger interface, configuration ports and internal power supply. It’s the brains of the Cube and controls the unit’s operations, including the interface with the host Controller (and other Cubes), as well as supervising the activity of the I/O boards.

With over 60 different I/O boards available for the EtherCAT’s I/O modules, we’re sure to have just what your application requires. We currently offer:

• A/D boards to measure voltage, current, strain gages, thermocouples and more
• D/A boards with outputs to ±40V or ±50 mA
• Digital I/O interfaces for logic and “real-world” signal levels
• Counters and timers
• Quadrature encoder inputs
• RVDT/LVDT
• Communications interfaces for RS-232, RS-422/485.

One of the selling points of EtherCAT is that it does not require Ethernet switches/routers for multichassis connectivity. The EtherCAT master/host communicates with the cube over standard CAT5e/6/7 series cables. The EtherCAT network is daisy-chain style, where an input cable comes from the host/master and then an output cable goes to another EtherCAT device.

 

EtherCAT requires sub microsecond propagation for data parsing through a device so system throughput and synchronization is preserved.