Belden Hub Gives Existing Analog Sensors an IO-Link Address
LioN-X analog hubs take 4-20 mA, voltage, resistance and thermocouple inputs onto IO-Link without replacing the sensors, in a release that also covers DC-powered substation switches and an eight-channel HART gateway.
Belden announced a wide set of IT/OT connectivity products on 13 September, and the one most likely to matter to an existing plant is the least dramatic: LioN-X IO-Link Analog Hubs.
Each hub has four configurable analog ports for voltage, current, resistance, or thermocouple inputs, plus eight digital inputs. The hubs are powered over IO-Link itself, so there is no separate supply or M12 L-coded power connection to run, and the zinc die-cast housing is rated IP67/IP69K from -40 to +70 degrees Celsius. They work with any IO-Link master.
The reason that matters: a plant sitting on several thousand working 4-20 mA transmitters cannot make a business case for swapping them all for IO-Link parts, but it can put a hub beside a junction box and get the same digital identity, diagnostics and parameter access. The ProSoft PLX51-HART-8I in the same announcement addresses the process end of the problem, providing eight isolated HART channels to EtherNet/IP or Modbus and connecting up to 64 field devices.
The rest of the release is infrastructure. The Hirschmann GREYHOUND GRS2000 gains a low-voltage DC power option with single or redundant supplies, aimed at substations, trackside and process facilities, and offering a migration path from MACH1000 and GRS1020/30 switches; the GRS2000 supports up to 34 configurable ports, 10 Gigabit SFP uplinks, PTPv2 and HSR. The Hirschmann IT MTS2608 and MTS2708 eight-port managed switches are extended to the Americas and EMEA, both with four 10G SFP+ uplinks and ERPS ring redundancy, the MTS2708 adding 802.3at PoE+ on a 125 W budget. Belden also launched Wireless Orchestration, a software WLAN controller covering enterprise and industrial access points from one dashboard, a 4U fibre panel supporting up to 384 fibres for APAC, and Safe-T-Line cabling certified to CPR Cca and EN 50200 PH120 for fire alarm and emergency circuits.
None of it is exciting. All of it decides whether an IT/OT data project is a retrofit or a rip-out.