IO-link sensor compatibility

, , ,
1

Hi,

I was wondering if there is a way to connect io-link sensors - or even io-link masters with sensors connected to them - to Tulip in any possible way (Node-red or any other way would be awesome as well) since there is clearly no native support (driver) on edge devices etc.
If you have already tried even something similar to this, please share your experiences :slightly_smiling_face: .
Or if it is not yet a thing we can do, is there a future plan to release some kind of feature for this?

Thanks

1 Like
2

Hey @kobe -

I haven’t worked with these sensors personally, but it does look like the node-red community has made nodes to work with at least some of their sensors here:

This article walks through the process of passing data from node-red to Tulip:

Pete

1 Like
3

Hey Pete,

Yeah, I found these nodes too, but it seems to be compatible only with IO-link masters from this manufacturer “IFM”.
Soo, since I tried to connect Turck sensors it did not really work out just yet.
That is why i thought about more like of a “doing it from scratch” approach.

4

Hey @kobe -

Do you know specifically what sensor you would be looking to use?

This looks like a 2 fold question, connecting to a sensor directly or connecting to the io-link master:

  1. Our Edge IO supports many digital and analog devices nativy, so might be plug and play with your sensor:
    Edge IO | a new edge device from Tulip | Tulip
  2. If going to one of their masters or hubs, they support tons of IOT protocols, so there are a bunch of different ways to interface in Node-Red. Here is one of their products that supports MQTT, TCP/IP, hosts a REST API, etc. all of these avenues are compatible with Node-Red. (product docs around IOT attached)

If you can throw me the models you are looking at, I can give a little more direct guidance on what this might look like in NR/Tulip.

Pete
AL1352_80284138UK.pdf (1.7 MB)
Uploading: 11376732UK.pdf…

5

Hey @Pete_Hartnett,

Thank you for the quick answers.
We currently have no specific models or hardware for the use of this, just a Turck IO-link starter kit to play around with.

This kit includes This master.
But my goal would be more like figuring out if this is possible at all or not, if that makes sense. Task ideas with this would be for example very long-range rfid reading for location services, etc.

As far as I’m concerned, unfortunately it isn’t possible to plug these sensors directly to the Edge IO.

Br,
Bence

6

Hey @kobe -

Looks totally doable with that master. All of their masters support EtherNet/IP and Profinet and this NR node supports connecting to those protocols:

Additionally, these devices communicate over Serial on RS-232/485, which is often an avenue to get stuff talking to Tulip quickly. Attached is the manual for that hub.

I can’t guarantee you will be able to connect these guys to Tulip via NR, but I would have a lot of confidence if it was me signing the check.

Pete
edb_6814024_gbr_en.pdf (308.5 KB)

1 Like
7

Hey @Pete_Hartnett

Thank you! I’m looking forward to try to get this thing working with these nodes, if i will have any mentionable progress, i will post it here!

Bence