As such, they are designed to migrate existing Optomux installations to faster networks, higher performance and more communication options. The E1 is designed to upgrade the B1 brain board for digital I/O systems, while the E2 is designed for analog I/O systems as an upgrade for the B2 brain board. The E1 and E2 brain boards offer both 10/100Mbps Ethernet and RS-422/485 serial networking, and support multiple protocols simultaneously. In addition to the Optomux protocol over serial, the E1 and E2 also support OptoMMP (memory-map protocol used with the vendor’s newer SNAP Ethernet systems), Optomux protocol over Ethernet, OPC through OptoOPCServer and Modbus/TCP. “With the introduction of the E1 and E2, we have Ethernet-enabled Optomux,” says Mark Engman, vice president of engineering at the vendor. “With a simple brain board swap-out, a 20-year-old I/O system can quickly, easily and affordably be upgraded and made to communicate over an Ethernet network, while preserving the customer’s investment in I/O modules, racks, sensors and actuators, wiring and labor.” The E1 list price is $295, while the E2 list price is $315.
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