Beckhoff EK9160 IoT bus coupler

The EK9160 IoT Bus Coupler transmits all control data to all common cloud systems in plug-and-play mode. Neither a controller nor programming is required through the implementation as a bus coupler-based solution. Simple configuration is all that is necessary for the I/O terminals, cloud services and security functions used.

The EK9160 establishes a direct connection without any special control program between Beckhoff EtherCAT I/O and the Internet of Things (IoT). As a result, the coupler enables simple and standardised integration of I/O data with cloud-based communication and data services.

Via an integrated web server, the I/O data can be parameterised, such as in data processing and timing, through a simple configuration dialog. No special engineering tools are needed. The EK9160 IoT Bus Coupler then autonomously transmits the data, including timestamp, to the cloud service. Apart from that, extended mechanisms are available, including local buffering of I/O data on a microSD card (2 GB) to protect against data loss when the internet connection is interrupted. The cloud services and security functions (encryption, firewall) can be configured via the web server in the same convenient way.

All major cloud systems are supported via the IoT protocols AMQP, MQTT and OPC UA (over AMQP): Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), SAP HANA, as well as private cloud systems in company networks. The EK9160 is Microsoft Azure Certified and enables communication with clouds based on advanced multicloud capabilities.