Coupler With Optical Fiber Connection; Ek1501 - Beckhoff EK1101 Documentation

2.4

Coupler with optical fiber connection

2.4.1

EK1501

2.4.1.1 EK1501 - Introduction
EK1501 EtherCAT coupler with ID switch, multimode optical fiber connection
The EK1501 coupler connects the EtherCAT Device Protocol with the EtherCAT Terminals (ELxxxx/ESxxxx/
EMxxxx). One station consists of a coupler, any number of EtherCAT Terminals and a bus end terminal, e.g.
EL9011.
The coupler converts the telegrams from Ethernet 100BASE-FX to E-bus signal representation in passing
with minimum latency The upper Ethernet interface is used to connect the coupler to the network; the lower
SC socket serves for the optional connection of further EtherCAT devices in the same strand.
The coupler supplies the connected terminals with the necessary E-bus current for communication. The
coupler can supply a maximum of 5V/2A. Power feed terminals (e.g. EL9410) must be integrated if more
current is required.
In the EtherCAT network, the coupler is used at an arbitrary place in the Ethernet signal transmission range
(100BASE-FX). The coupler thereby processes exclusively unaddressed MAC Broadcast telegrams of the
type EtherCAT Device Protocol from the EtherCAT master. Since directed addressing via MAC Unicast or IP
addressing is not used, neither a switch nor a router can be used.
The multimode glass fiber connection enables distances of up to 2 km between two couplers.
The coupler supports the HotConnect technique; see the basic EtherCAT documentation regarding this. The
characteristics of the EK1501 in relation to this are:
• ID can be set on the device via 3 rotary selector switches within the range 0 to 4095 (hexadecimal)
• the ID is readable online by the EtherCAT master via the process data
EK110x, EK15xx Version: 3.6
Product overview
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