Product Description:

The EL3068 is an analog input terminal manufactured by Beckhoff for the EL EtherCAT Terminals series. Designed for inline installation on a standard DIN rail, the module converts process-level analog signals into digital words that an EtherCAT coupler can forward to the PLC. By combining signal conditioning, conversion, and bus interfacing in one 12 mm-wide slice, the product simplifies distributed data acquisition in machine tools, conveyors, and process skids where compact, high-density I/O is required.

The front of the terminal provides 8 analog inputs, each routed through a programmable multiplexer that supports a conversion chain with 12-bit resolution. Every channel references the common supply through a single-ended topology, so sensor grounds must share the terminal’s internal 0 V line. An analog filter with a 1 kHz cutoff limits high-frequency noise before the sample-and-hold circuit is engaged, while the ADC has an input resistance greater than 130 kΩ, minimizing the load on high-impedance transducers. Because the terminal uses multiplexed sampling, only one channel is converted at a time. The terminal does not support the Distributed Clocks feature, so all timing is derived from the local EtherCAT cycle rather than a hardware-synchronized clock domain.

Electrical isolation between the I/O electronics and the field side provides a dielectric strength of 30 V, making the terminal suitable for low-voltage measurement tasks involving common industrial sensors. The housing has an IP20 protection rating and clips onto a 35 mm DIN rail, matching the mechanical format of adjacent Beckhoff terminals. For cyclic transmission, each channel places a 2-byte status image and a 2-byte value image into the process data, allowing the controller to read diagnostic flags alongside the measured value. The terminal does not support CoE storage, so calibration and scaling parameters must be retained through the controller configuration rather than stored locally after power is removed.