The industrially-suited MICA Edge Computer is now available with a secondary Ethernet interface. It can be used to easily exchange and process data between two Ethernet networks, including wired-to-wireless gateway applications.
With many Industry 4.0 applications, it is necessary to separate networks and send data back and forth between Ethernet protocols without permitting external applications direct access to a corporate network. As a result, HARTING has added a second interface for these applications to its MICA Edge Computing device. An additional USB interface can also be used for adding further capabilities or a USB storage device. This is because, unlike a router, MICA can also carry out complex data transformations and aggregations.
The secondary Ethernet interface is provided via the functional circuit board and expands the modular system of the MICA platform. In particular, MICA Wireless with WLAN, BLE and LTE connectivity with an additional Ethernet interface is an easy to manage and compact solution for many projects in the areas of industry and transportation.
For example, it can be used as a wired-to-wireless gateway for collecting maintenance data from PLCs and to send relevant events to the machine manufacturer or maintenance services. In addition, MICA Wireless can process nodes for RFID readers connected via WLAN. When used in this way, many RFID readers send data that evaluates the tags and feeds them in via Ethernet to the corporate network. Finally, it’s also possible to monitor remote systems via Ethernet and transmit the data as needed in a compressed format worldwide via LTE or via BLE to Ethernet gateways or railway embankment applications where Ethernet capable PLCs and RFID readers are also increasingly being used.
Caption: The industrial-grade edge computer MICA is now also available with a secondary Ethernet interface.
