ORION Motion Controllers 
Support Ethernet I/O

ORMEC is pleased to announce support for a variety of popular Ethernet I/O products for motion control applications.  Fully integrated software includes elegant setup, configuration and programming tools to greatly simplify using Ethernet I/O in motion control applications.

Utilizing ORMEC’s Ethernet I/O communications MBX (MotionBASIC Extension), users can select from among WAGO Ethernet I/O, Opto 22 Snap Ethernet I/O, Modicon TSX Momentum or Sixnet EtherTrak I/O to meet specific application requirements.  With the Ethernet I/O MBX installed, the Ethernet I/O modules are configurable from the user’s PC using ORMEC’s MotionDesk development software.

All I/O mapping and communications are handled by the software extension, and the programmer can utilize standard MotionBASIC statements (DIO@ and AIO@) to integrate analog and digital Ethernet I/O into their application program.

Ethernet I/O Approaches

Since different I/O vendors have designed their products to address differing customer needs, ORMEC is supporting multiple Ethernet I/O products.  The software is designed to support a growing number of Ethernet I/O solutions in the future.

Vendors have taken two approaches to meeting the user’s Ethernet I/O needs:

“Modular I/O” combines a rack and controller for each node.  The user can mix and match module types (AC In/Out, DC In/Out, sinking/sourcing, Analog current/voltage, etc.) within the rack.  Modular I/O provides maximum flexibility when there is a need to mix I/O types and provides a solution for small numbers of distributed I/O.

WAGO Ethernet I/O and Opto22 Snap Ethernet I/O are examples of modular I/O.

“Brick I/O” are enclosed modules which contain both inputs and outputs, but the “type” is fixed.  For example, some options include 16 DC inputs (10-32V) plus 16 DC outputs (10-32V) or 10 DC inputs (24V) and 8 relay outputs.  Depending on the mix of I/O required for your application, the “brick I/O” approach may be an attractive and cost-effective solution.

Modicon TSX Momentum and Sixnet EtherTrak are examples of “brick I/O” solutions.  

Performance

The Ethernet I/O MBX has been optimized for I/O handling --- running as a priority task under MotionBASIC to maximize data throughput.  The performance of Ethernet I/O is very deterministic if it’s on an isolated network or separated from other network traffic by a switching hub.  MotionBASIC supports multiple Ethernet adapters in the same controller to ease creating a separate I/O network.

Additional Links of Interest

• For datasheet of ORMEC's WAGO Ethernet I/O connectivity, click here.
• For datasheet of ORMEC's Opto 22 SNAP Ethernet I/O connectivity, click here.
• For a one-page overview of ORMEC's Ethernet I/O Connectivity Options (Adobe Acrobat PDF file), click here.  (79 k, Acrobat file).
• For ORMEC's Ethernet I/O Application Note, click here.