Beckhoff EL8601-8411 EtherCAT terminal

Beckhoff’s EL8601-8411 EtherCAT Terminal offers increased flexibility in a compact design as a 12-channel multi-interface system that is 12 mm wide. It is therefore suitable for applications where only a few complex signals are required as well as in special-purpose machine building, where its flexible signal configuration enables minimised storage.

The EL8601-8411 EtherCAT Terminal offers a combination of up to 12 signal interfaces (eight DI, two DO, one AI, one AO) and up to nine different signal types. Due to the large number of configurable combinations, it offers a compact solution for applications where only a few complex signals are required — for example, as a complement to the company’s CX7000 Embedded PC.

In addition to the digital inputs and outputs, one analog input and one analog output can be configured as a current or voltage signal. The digital inputs with configurable filter times can also be used for 24 V HTL encoders with A/B track including latch and gate function or as an up/down counter with a counting frequency of up to 100 kHz. Two of the digital outputs can be used as a PWM signal that can be modulated in both pulse width and frequency in a range of 20 Hz to 25 kHz. This allows the EL8601-8411 to be used in a flexible manner, eg, in digital/analog, counter/PWM/analog or encoder/PWM/analog configurations.