Beckhoff Automation GmbH (Germany) - New master interfaces for CANopen and PROFIBUS.

With the CX8030 and CX8050 Embedded PCs, Beckhoff is extending its CX8000 series of ultra compact PC-based controllers with PROFIBUS and CANopen masters. These flexible devices represent inexpensive, space-saving solutions for universal use in control applications that require fieldbus master functionality.

It was already possible to implement fieldbus master functionality with a CX8000 series Embedded PC that has an integrated fieldbus slave in combination with an additional EtherCAT master terminal. With the CX8030 and CX8050 this function is now available for PROFIBUS or CANopen, already integrated directly in compact Embedded PCs.

The CX8030 and CX8050 Embedded PCs are ideally suited to connect any fieldbus slave, from valve terminals to drives, in small to medium-sized machine applications. Furthermore, they can be used as gateways between EtherCAT slave devices as well as devices with a conventional slave interface such as PROFIBUS or CAN, as well as for coupling of machine controllers to a higher-level Ethernet infrastructure.

CX8030: In addition to normal data exchange, the PROFIBUS master also supports DPV1 communication. As a further feature, the master interface can also be configured as a slave interface if necessary. A simple PROFIBUS monitor for the CX8030 is available in the TwinCAT System Manager for diagnostic purposes.

CX8050: The CX8050 can operate as a CANopen master and also as a “simple” CAN master. In this case CAN 2.0A and CAN 2.0B are supported, i.e. 11-bit or 29-bit identifier. This means that all CAN applications and CAN devices that are commonly used can be addressed and networked with the CX8050. A simple CAN monitor is available for diagnostics.

Technical properties:
The Embedded PCs measure just 65 x 100 x 80 mm and feature the Windows CE 6.0 operating system, a 400 MHz ARM9 CPU, 64 MB RAM and a 256 MB MicroSD card which can be extended to 4 GB. There is also an Ethernet 10/100 Mbit/s interface as well as a USB interface (behind the front flap). The PROFIBUS interface on the CX8030 is a 9-pin D-Sub plug with screening; the CANopen bus interface on the CX8050 is a 9-pin D-sub plug conforming to the CANopen specification with galvanic decoupling.