CU2508 | Infrastructure, 8-port port multiplier, Ethernet, 24 V DC, RJ45

The CU2508 real-time Ethernet port multiplier allows the connection of up to eight Ethernet networks. The CU2508 is connected to the control IPC via a Gigabit uplink. The PC offers high-performance data transfer to the multiplier, which allocates the data to the relevant 100BASE-TX port based on an analysis of a telegram prefix and sends them time-controlled with µs precision. Frames received are also provided with a prefix, including timestamp, and transmitted to the PC via the Gigabit line. From the point of view of the user, therefore, eight individually usable 100 Mbit ports are available with full real-time properties.

The CU2508 is used in applications in which several Ethernet ports are required that need to be realized externally to the PC. TwinCAT 3 supports the CU2508 with communication via Ethernet (TCP/IP), EtherCAT, EAP (EtherCAT Automation Protocol) and Realtime Ethernet – this makes additional network ports on the PC superfluous.

In particular, the CU2508 makes extensive EtherCAT installations possible: for extremely high data throughput requirements, this can be expanded up to eight lines, thus multiplying the performance. The distributed clocks of the EtherCAT strands are synchronized. An EtherCAT cable redundancy with simultaneous distributed clock use can also be implemented with two ports of the CU2508.

Several CU2508 units can be operated simultaneously on one controller if even higher data throughput should be required.