UEINet Programmable Automation Controller (PAC) Cube with VxWorks

UEI is an esteemed member of the Wind River Partner Program.

The UEINet chassis provides ultra-compact Ethernet based I/O module suitable for a wide variety of distributed data acquisition, control, and SCADA applications. Based on UEI's popular PowerDNA Cube architecture, the new series is designed for applications requiring distributed I/O with a very small footprint.

The UEINet chassis is an extremely rugged, Gigabit Ethernet-based I/O interface. The wide variety allows you to configure one or more Cubes to match the specific I/O requirements of your application. The PowerDNA Cube is ideally suited for a wide variety of industrial, aerospace, and laboratory data acquisition and control applications.

UEINet chassis are 2.7" x 4.1" x 4" and are packed with power and flexibility. Each UEINet module consists of two primary subsections: a Core Module and an I/O board.

The "standard" UEINet is designed to run as a slave I/O unit controlled directly by a host PC. The UEINet PAC UPG option allows the unit to run as a stand-alone device running an application you write in either Linux or VxWorks operating systems. Simulink users can use the UEINet SIM UPG option to enable the ability to build applications in Simulink. These Simulink modules may be run on a host PC, stand-alone on the UEINet, or in a SCADA mode where a stand-alone application runs but can be tuned by the host PC. Finally, there the UEINet Mod UPG allows the UEINet to run as a MODBUS TCP node and UEINet OPC-UA UPG.

The Core Module occupies the top portion of the chassis and provides two independent Gigabit Ethernet Network Interface Controllers (NICs) with separate IP addresses. These may be configured as a control port and a diagnostic port or they may be teamed/bonded to allow redundant network access. The control port is the primary interface from the host PC. The diagnostics port allows other computers (or a different thread on the host) to interrogate the I/O and system status of the Cube.

The Core module also provides the 8347 series PowerPC CPU, two USB 2.0 controller ports (active only with the UEIPAC option), indicator lights, timing/trigger interface, configuration ports, and internal power supply. It's the brains of the UEINet and controls the unit's operations including the interface with the host Controller (and other Cubes), acting as the primary processor in stand-alone deployments as well as supervising the activity of the I/O board.

The remainder of the chassis contains the I/O board. A custom (though fully COTS) I/O configuration is possible by specifying the UEINet with any of UEI's DNA-series I/O boards. An overview of these boards is also provided on the following pages, while detailed specifications can be obtained from the various I/O boards' datasheets. With over 80 different I/O boards available we're sure to have just what your application requires.

VxWorks Deployments

You may now take advantage of all the hardware advantages of UEI's popular UEIPAC chassis and continue to develop your applications in VxWorks. This powerful combination provides hard real-time performance, an extremely robust and reliable operating system, allows you to develop your application in a familiar environment and last, but not least, allows you to preserve a great deal of previously written code! To deploy a UEIPAC application running VxWorks you'll need the following.

1. A UEIPAC (any version)
2. The "UEIPAC VxW BSP". You only need to purchase the BSP once, regardless of the number of systems you deploy
3. A VxWorks development system (from Wind River)
4. A VxWorks run-time license for each UEIPAC deployed. (also purchased from Wind River )

The UEINet-FLANGE, mounting option allows the UEINet series to be easily mounted to any flat surface. The UEINet-DR, DIN rail mount allows the unit to be mounted to any standard 35 mm DIN rail.