Beckhoff EK1541 | EtherCAT Coupler with ID switch, plastic optical fiber

The EK1541 EtherCAT Coupler with a polymer optical fiber (POF) connection is the

link between the EtherCAT protocol at fieldbus level and the EtherCAT Terminals. 

The coupler converts the passing telegrams from Ethernet 100BASE-TX POF

hardware to E-bus

signal representation. A station consists of a coupler and any number of EtherCAT

Terminals that are automatically detected and individually displayed in the process

image.

Special features:

• connection technology 2 x polymer optical fiber (POF) connection via Versatile

Link socket

• connection lengths up to 50 m

• 3 ID switches for implementing variable topologies

• number of EtherCAT Terminals in the overall system: up to 65.535

The EK1541 has two Versatile Link sockets for POF duplex connectors and three

hexadecimal ID switches. The coupler is connected to the network via the upper

Ethernet connection. The lower socket may be used to connect further EtherCAT

devices in the same segment. With the polymer optical fiber connection, distances

between two couplers of up to 50 m can be reached. Unlike the glass fiber, the

POF fiber is easily wireable in the field. A group of EtherCAT components can be

assigned a unique ID via the hexadecimal ID switches. This group can then be

located at any position within the EtherCAT network. Variable topologies are

therefore easily implementable. In addition, an EtherCAT junction or an EtherCAT

extension can be used for the extension or for setting up a line or star topology.

The system and field supply, each 24 V DC, is provided directly at the coupler.

The attached EtherCAT Terminals are supplied with the current required for

communication from the supplied system voltage. The coupler can supply a

maximum of 5 V and 2 A. Power feed terminals (e.g. EL9410) must be integrated

if more current is required. The field supply is forwarded to the individual I/O

components via the power contacts with up to 10 A.