EtherCAT is appropriate for both hard and soft real-time requirements. It makes possible a large variety of topologies, such as lines, trees, rings, stars and combinations of these. Switches are thus made superfluous. In order to optimise the speed, processing the frame begins immediately, even if the frame still has not been entirely received. Sending follows the same principle. In order to assure precise synchronisation, even for widely separated network participants, the master clock is always compared to the slave clocks
ADDI-DATA proposes I/O slave systems for
- analog inputs
- digital I/Os
- EnDAT 2.2 sensors
- Transducers: LVDT, HB, RVDT, …
Benefits
- Hot-plug enabled
- Fast systems: Burst acquisition possible (systems are faster than the bus cycle)
- Systems can be synchronized with one another for more precise acquisitions
- High precision
Overview of the currently available EtherCAT systems
- MSX-EC-3000-16 – 16 analog inputs, SE, 16-bits
- MSX-EC- 1730 – 4 EnDAT 2.2 sensors, 16 analog inputs, SE, 16-bits
- MSX-EC-3781 – 8 inductive displacement transducers
- EC-ARTS-3701 – 4 inductive displacement transducers