In recent years, Ethernet has become increasingly popular in the automation industry, especially in power automation systems. Many PLCs or RTUs now support Ethernet as the primary communication interface. In order to minimize noise interference in its communication system, a Taiwanese transportation company wanted to connect all its train stations using fiber optic cables. The power monitoring system in each station would also be connected in this way.

Keeping the Cat 5 cables as short as possible is imperative to building an automation system and media converters offer the most convenient solution without changing the entire hardware structure.

Transportation applications also require industrial-grade solutions due to their environmental conditions. Therefore, our client requested industrial DIN-rail mounted media converters to connect RTUs and PLCs to the Ethernet switches. In an air quality management system or power system. Some of the station's equipment have Ethernet support but are legacy devices. As a result, the media converter also needed to recognize standards such as Half Duplex or 10BaseT.

Moxa's IMC-21-S-SC is an entry-level industrial media converter that supports 10/100BaseTx to 100BaseTx converters. The cost is very reasonable and the performance and form-factor are just what our customer needed. The operating temperature range is -10 to 60°C, which is wider than commercialgrade products. The IMC-21-S-SC also supports DIN-rail mounting, which saves additional space in the cabinet.

•Expands the fiber port of the Ethernet switch 
•DIN-rail mounting saves space in the cabinet 
•DIP-switch for FDX/HDX, 10BaseTx/100BaseTx, and Auto/Force settings 
•Supports Link Fault Pass Through to help system administrators manage the whole network status