Control Network Newsletter
SPS 2019 in Nuremberg Follow-Up
We attended the Smart Production Solutions (SPS) exhibition for automation technology November 26th to 28th in Nuremberg Germany. Suppliers of automation technology from around the world, including Contemporary Controls, were there to exhibit and explain their latest products. Many existing and new customers came to see us at the show.
Our newest products generated excitement at our stand. The addition to our CTRLink family of high-speed cellular routers with two new 10/100 Mbps devices that link Internet protocol (IPv4) networks to Ethernet were well received. The EICR has a built-in LTE cellular modem, where the cellular side act as the WAN interface and the LAN side consist of an Ethernet port. The EIMR Skorpion Machine Router has the same features as the EICR but includes configurable digital I/O. Both routers incorporate a stateful firewall which passes communication initiated on the LAN-side, while blocking WAN-side communication unless allowed. Both products include a built-in OpenVPN client for use with the cloud VPN service from Contemporary Controls for secure remote access. The Skorpion family also features EIPR and EIGR series of IP routers that provide a quick and reliable option to interface industrial automation equipment to an existing IP network.
The EIGR-V router has built-in OpenVPN server with webpage interface to generate certificates and keys for VPN client devices. This Self-Hosted VPN solution lets the user setup and maintain their own remote access solution without any subscription fees. There is no need for NAT or Port Forwarding setup for individual LAN devices and upto 15 routers can be supported as VPN clients.
Also on exhibit were two new IoT Gateway products that provide LTE cellular capability. One model supports Modbus TCP and Modbus RTU master with the built-in RS-485 port. The second model supports BACnet/IP and MS/TP client capability. A built-in Microsoft Azure IoT connector provides easy connection to the cloud for dashboards and alerts. The Modbus Client Controller is built on the Raspberry Pi platform and offers wired and Wi-Fi connectivity options to connect to Modbus TCP or slave devices. The Modbus Edge Controllers offer Modbus TCP with built-in I/O for universal inputs, digital outputs and/or analog outputs. Interface to Azure cloud, email alerts and graphical programming via Sedona make it easy to create your own applications. The IoT gateways are based on Linux and are also available as ODM devices that can be leveraged by the user to run their own application.
Visit the IP Routers product page to learn more.