The new EL6688 EtherCAT Terminal from Beckhoff permits cross-factory and cross-site synchronisation according to the IEEE 1588 standard. Using the EL6688, different machines, system components or production lines can be accurately synchronised with each other or with an external grandmaster clock via GPS or DCF77 receivers. In this way, a high-precision, technology and vendor independent global time base is available that can be used for time stamping of, for example, measured data.
With the distributed clocks, all devices in an EtherCAT system can be synchronised with a tolerance of less than 100 ns. The EL6688 EtherCAT Terminal permits synchronisation with different networks across sites. This applies to different production lines, for example, which have to be synchronised with microsecond precision. The system utilises the control accuracy of distributed clocks and the standardised synchronisation interface in the EL6688. Synchronisation to an external event is always the same, irrespective of whether the external application uses EtherCAT, IEEE 1588 or a digital input.
The EL6688 EtherCAT Terminal supports the Ethernet-based IEEE 1588 protocols PTPv1 (IEEE 1588-2002) and PTPv2 (IEEE 1588-2008).
The EL6688 is an IEEE 1588 clock (ordinary clock), which, from the perspective of the higher-level master (grandmaster) operates as a slave or supplies the connected EtherCAT Terminals (slaves) as a master via distributed clocks. The EL6688 terminal can be located at any point within the EtherCAT Terminal network.
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