Product Description

Beckhoff is an engineering company based in Germany. The company is known for its industrial PCs, automation software, and I/O platforms. High-quality products and innovative solutions have made Beckhoff an industrial leader in the field of automation equipment.

The EK1501 is an EtherCAT coupler that connects EtherCAT Terminals with EtherCAT. It is used for communication between two or more stations. A station consists of EtherCAT Terminals, the EK1501 coupler, and an EtherCAT extension. A 50/125 µm multimode glass fiber is used for data transfer.  Because of the high-quality fiber optic material, two stations can be installed at a distance of up to 2 km. The multimode glass fiber ensures that there is no disruption in signal transmission up to 2 km. The device supports up to 65,534 EtherCAT Terminals. The EK1501 has three hexadecimal ID switches. They are used for assigning an ID to a group of components. Assigning an ID helps to easily locate and identify individual groups in an EtherCAT network. Up to 4096 IDs can be figured in the system.

The EK1501 transfers data at 100 Mb/s. Because of such a rapid data transfer, the delay is only around 1 µs. For bus interface, the device has two SC Duplex channels. The coupler runs on a 130 mA current provided by a 24 V DC supply. The device comes with international CE, ATEX, and UL approvals. It is safe to use the system in a 0 ᵒC to 55 ᵒC temperature range. Relative humidity up to 95% is suitable for the device's operation. The coupler only weights 190 g and is protected according to the IP 20 protection standard. The EK1501 proves to be a great platform for integrating EtherCAT Terminals to EtherCAT networks.