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In
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COVER
STORIES
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| Active
Remote I/O—Realtime-ize Your Ethernet DA&C Systems |
| If
your Ethernet data acquisition and control system requires
real-time I/O data, then the new "Active Remote I/O" products
from MOXA have a solution. Compared to what's been available
up to now, the Active Remote I/O solution provides more
possibilities for real-time data acquisition, active I/O
messaging, and local logic control.
You can integrate
Active Remote I/O旧 input signals into one event to form
an integrated message, and set up local output control at
the same time. This provides more concise and efficient
communication between the host computer and I/O devices.
In addition, the message delivery time is 20 times faster
than traditional SCADA systems (50 ms compared to 1 sec).
Active Remote
I/O products work over an open network platform, and offer
the added benefit of local intelligence with Moxa旧 Click&Go?
logic control software. Click&Go?logic is the key element
that transforms Active Remote I/O products into intelligent,
remote I/O. Click&Go?allows users to decide when to transmit
I/O data, and what message to be delivered to host computers
for simple alarm control and messaging. As opposed to using
C-language or PLC-ladder programming, anyone who understands
basic logic concepts can use Click&Go?to do the configuration
themselves, and easily finish the project in a short period
of time.
The emphasis
on real-time I/O data transfer for modern DA&C systems represents
a new trend in the industry. Traditional "passive remote
I/O" architectures normally wait passively to be polled
by a host computer, which is one reason for the slower response
time. However, more and more applications require active
I/O messaging and faster I/O response time (from 1 to 2
sec, to as little as 50 ms) to improve efficiency. The centralized
architecture and distributed intelligence of Active Remote
I/O gives control engineers the ability to create the kind
of control systems that they could only dream of before.
Active Remote
I/O covers all of the functionality of Passive Remote I/O,
and can work directly with SCADA software, such as Citect,
Wonderware Intouch, etc.
MOXA's Active
Remote I/O products have the following outstanding characteristics:
-
Actively transmit I/O data in real-time
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Automatically control output channel status based on input
conditions
- Easy to configure
Click&Go logic (patent pending)
- SNMP I/O with
read/write, trap
Two models that
support Active Remote I/O will be available at the end of
July:
- ioLogik E2210
(digital I/O)
- ioLogik E2240
(analog I/O)
NOTE:
If you are already using the ioLogik E2210, you may upgrade
to Active Remote I/O by downloading the new utility and
firmware—free of charge.
Detailed product
information is available on MOXA's global website at: www.moxa.com/product/Active_Remote_IO_Server.htm.
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NEW
PRODUCT HIGHLIGHTS |
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| Industrial
Switch Offers the Best of All Worlds—Management,
Ruggedness, Economy |
 The
EDS-408A/405A Series of managed industrial Ethernet switches
provide users with a rugged, reliable, economical solution
for setting up industrial networks. The switches support
several key management functions, including Turbo Ring,
ring coupling, VLAN, QoS, RMON, bandwidth management,
port mirroring, and warning by email or relay. The ready-to-use
Turbo Ring can be configured easily over the network with
a convenient web-based management interface (included
with the product). You may also use the switch out of
the box, since the default settings are suitable for most
applications.
The
EDS-408A/405A Series' useful device management and
network management
functions make it easy for you to master your automation
Ethernet network, and the rugged hardware design makes
the switches ideal for use in demanding industrial
environments.
Click
here for product details and ordering information.
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| Unplug-Plug-n-Play—COM
Preserver™ Makes USB-to-Serial
an Attractive Alternative |
 The
trend of using
Ethernet and USB ports to connect serial peripherals
to a PC continues to increase in popularity. In particular,
the ease with which USB can be used has made the USB-to-serial
solution particularly
attractive. Keeping in line with this trend, we're happy
to report that MOXA's new generation of USB-to-serial
hubs are set to take the market by storm.
MOXA's new UPort series of USB-to-serial hubs includes
a wide range of products and solutions for adding Windows
COM ports via the PC's USB ports. The new products include
4-, 8-, and 16-port models. The UPort
1400
series of USB-to-serial hubs have 4 RS-232 or RS-232/422/485
serial ports. The UPort 1600 series of USB-to-serial
hubs have 8 or 16
RS-232 or RS-232/422/485 ports.
Both the UPort 1400 and UPort 1600 USB-to-serial hubs
support hi-speed (480 Mbps) USB 2.0, 128-byte
FIFO, and
on-chip H/W, S/W flow control. This makes the UPort
1400/1600
hubs the top performing USB-to-serial hubs in the world.
In addition to supporting USB 2.0, the new UPort hubs
also have the following features:
- COM
Preserver™: COM port assignments are maintained
when replugging into another PC's USB port
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Serial communication speed up to 921.6 Kbps
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Windows 2003/XP/2000 driver support
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Support for the Windows 32-bit/64-bit platforms
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Built-in 15 KV ESD protection
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Mini female DB9 to terminal block attachment for easy
wiring
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Support for both bus power and external power
Model
Name |
Serial
Interface |
No.
of Ports |
Shipping
Date |
UPort
1410 |
RS-232 |
4 |
Available
Now! |
UPort
1450 |
RS-232/422/485 |
4 |
UPort
1610-8 |
RS-232 |
8 |
UPort
1650-8 |
RS-232/422/485 |
8 |
UPort
1610-16 |
RS-232 |
16 |
UPort
1650-16 |
RS-232/422/485 |
16 |
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PRODUCT APPLICATIONS |
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| Advanced
Monitoring and Control Network for Steel Refineries |
| The
demand for steel by industries worldwide has been growing
steadily for many decades, and this increase in demand has
given rise to increased competitiveness between steel mills
in terms of profitability, production costs, and the quality
of steel that is produced. In order to compete more effectively,
steel mills are increasing product quality, maximizing process
efficiency, increasing production yields, and reducing operating
costs by using automation to modernize the monitoring and
control of processes.
Steel mills are
using industrial Ethernet with fiber cabling solutions to
upgrade the monitoring and control of processes. In addition
to overall cost and performance advantages, these solutions
must be integrated with legacy control systems, be highly
reliable in harsh, high temperature conditions that experience
high EMC/RFI interference, and incorporate mixed-speed fiber
ports, support longer network distances (typical of steel
mill plant sites), and allow for future upgrades and expansion.
Moxa provides complete solutions for the communication networks
used in the steel refinery industry.
China
Steel Mill Upgrades Monitoring and Control Capabilities
The Xuefeng Steel
plant in Wuxi, China, upgraded the monitoring and control
system used for its primary steelmaking process. The plant
uses blast furnaces, hot stoves, and a site that stores
raw material. The upgrade at the Xuefeng plant used a more
reliable fiber network infrastructure to centralize the
monitoring and control of processes that have a direct effect
on the quality of the steel.
System
Description
The Xuefeng
Steel plant's blast furnaces and hot stoves typically run
24/7 for long periods of time and involve extremely harsh
operating conditions with molten steel, corrosive chemicals
and strong electromagnetic interference present. Furthermore,
since the raw material site is more than 500 meters from
the main refinery sites, the Xuefeng plant must be able
to transmit data over relatively long distances. In addition,
the new system had to be economical to install, operate,
and manage, and was required to support the existing PLC
control system, but leave room for future expansion.
Xuefeng Steel
chose the MOXA ED6008-MM-CC industrial Ethernet switch for
its small size, high port density, true plug-and-play replacement
capability, and overall low cost. Another important feature
of the switch is MOXA Turbo Ring, which allows the Xuefeng
plant to connect all blast furnace sites by a reliable,
fiber-based, redundant ring connection that has a recovery
time under 300 ms. The ED6008-MM-CC switch is also easy
to configure and manage, and includes an auto e-mail warning
function that allows the ED6008-MM-SC to send real-time
e-mail messages and relay output alarms to operators and
managers. The ED6008-MM-CC provided the required harsh environment
capability, which includes a high MTBF of over 230,000 hours,
the ability to operate in -40 to 75°C temperatures when
needed, plus redundant, 24 VDC dual power inputs that can
be connected to live DC power sources. Xuefeng also used
MOXA's IMC-101-M-SC Ethernet to fiber media converter to
connect the ring topology of the main blast furnace sites
to the raw material site located more than 500 meters away.
As part of the
new network support, the Xuefeng plant added a fast and
reliable fiber network that covers the entire plant, dramatically
improving data and signal collection but without compromising
the existing PLC control system. The ability to collect
data and signals efficiently from different places was a
vast improvement compared to the previous system. With the
new system, system controllers and operators can easily
monitor and then quickly adjust the values of process parameters.
This improvement was most apparent in the efficiency gained
in the blast furnace/hot stove control systems that are
the heart of quality control for any steelmaking process.
The ability of the Xuefeng plant to collect and monitor
temperature and pressure fluctuations and flow rates of
raw materials and gases more accurately increases product
consistency and quality. The MOXA ED6008-MM-SC with Turbo
Ring provided the performance, features, reliability, and
scalability the Xuefeng plant needed to take the next step
in automating their plant.
System
Diagram
Business
Benefits from Moxa
-
MOXA Turbo Ring supports a fast redundant ring and recovery
time less than 300 milliseconds to create real-time, reliable
communication networks
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Fiber Ring topology protects against EMC/EMI interference
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ED6008-MM-SC supports long communication distances of
up to 2 km
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IP30, rugged high-strength aluminum case, DIN-Rail or
panel mounting, and certification for operation in hazardous
locations (Class 1 Div. 2/Zone 2)
-
ED6008-MM-SC can send out warning e-mails when a user-configured
exception is detected, providing operators and system
managers with real-time alarm messaging
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ED6008-MM-SC provides web-based management that helps
engineers manage and maintain the network from a remote
site
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MOXA
NEWS |
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| MOXA PCI
Express Serial Boards First to Receive
Windows XP/2003 (x64) WHQL Certification |
|   MOXA's
PCI Express serial boards were recently approved
by Microsoft's WHQL. This means that the boards
meet the "Designed for Windows
XP, Windows XP x64, Windows 2003, Windows 2003
x64
standard," and the "Designed
for Microsoft Windows" logo is printed on the
boards themselves.
In
fact, MOXA is the first brand of PCI Express board
to receive Windows' 64-bit platform WHQL certification
for multiport serial boards.
Three models
of MOXA PCI Express board are currently available:
CP-118EL (8-port RS-232/422/485), CP-168EL (8-ports
RS-232), and CP-104EL (4-ports RS-232). All three
boards fit any of the PCI Express slots (x1, x2, x4,
x8, and x16), and provide serial communication speed
up to 921.6 Kbps, 128-byte FIFO, low profile size,
on-chip hardware and software flow control, and 15
KV ESD surge protection.
Click
here to link to MOXA's website for detailed product
information, or to download the latest drivers.
Note:
The Windows Hardware Quality Laboratories (WHQL) is
the branch of Microsoft that tests hardware and drivers
for compatibility issues with the Windows operating
system. Microsoft established its "Designed for
Microsoft Windows" logo to help customers identify
products that deliver a high-quality computing experience
with the Microsoft Windows XP/2003 operating system.
The "Designed for Microsoft Windows" logo
on a product indicates that the product will be stable
when running Windows XP/2003, the related software
or driver components can be installed or removed easily,
and the basic experience with the product and the
operating system will be the same or better after
upgrading to future versions of Windows.
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| NPort
Device Server Used by Grand
Prize Winner of 2006 ARCHI-TECH AV Awards |
|  
Moxa
Technologies, Inc., contributed NPort 5610 serial
to Ethernet device
servers to an audio-visual project that
received a 2006 ARCHI-TECH AV Award. The winning
project, called Lake of Dreams in the Wynn,
Las Vegas, was created by SPL Integrated
Solutions. This
audio and
video performance is unlike any other. By day, the
area appears to be a 19,000-square-foot lake surrounded
by a waterfall on a mountain. By night, the architectural
landscape becomes a surface for video projection.
Four different shows include music, lighting, projection
onto the waterfall, projection on a 24-foot-high
fiberglass
head that rises out of the lake in 3 seconds, projection
on a 27-foot-high concave disk that rises above
the
waterfall, and two 38-foot-high robotic puppets.
The judges were awestruck by this project. One
judge,
echoing the sentiment of others, said, "This
was by far above everybody else's." Another
called it a "great model of collaboration."
ARCHI-TECH
magazine and InfoComm International® announced
that seven audiovisual design firms specializing in
AV installations received a 2006 ARCHI-TECH AV Award.
The ARCHI-TECH AV Awards honor the best audiovisual
architectural projects in the industry.
Two grand
prizes and five other winners were named from among
46 projects submitted for consideration.
"To Receive
an ARCHI-TECH AC Award speaks to the quality of the
products and the talents of the firms involved in
creating these award-winning audiovisual projects,"
said Jim Forthofer, publisher of ARCHI-TECH.
Charles
Chen, National Product Sales Manager for Moxa Technologies,
Inc., said "We are pleased to have been selected
by SPL Integrated Solutions to provide Moxa NPort
5610 Serial to Ethernet Device Servers for their award
winning project. Moxa NPort 5600 Series provides a
convenient and transparent way to establish an Ethernet
connection that not only protects your current hardware
investment, but also ensures future network expandability."
This award
was presented at InfoComm Internationals' third annual
AV Awards Banquet in Orlando on June 6th.
The
winning projects are:
Grand
Prize Winners
- Best
Project over $1 Million: Lake of Dreams submitted
by SPL Integrated Solutions, Columbia, MD.
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Best Project Under $1 Million: Carnegie Library
"Interactive UX" (User Experience) submitted by
the Sextant Group, headquartered in Pittsburg, PA
and the EDGE Studio, Pittsburg, PA.
Winners
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Cisco Systems Executive Briefing Center submitted
by Avidex Av, Redmond, WA.
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Centers for Disease Control Visitors Center submitted
by Communications Electronic Design (CED), Louisville,
KY.
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Movies Under the Stars submitted by Thomas Gregor
Associates, El Segundo, CA.
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San Jose Civic Center submitted by Shen Milson &
Wilke, headquartered in New York, NY.
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CDC Global Communications Building submitted by
Waveguide Consulting Inc., Atlanta, GA.
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