Complex building automation made easy

The RC-FLEXlink is an advanced BACnet router that aims to reduce building automation network complexity. It supports six BACnet networking capabilities in one compact device: BACnet/IP, BACnet/IPv6, BACnet Ethernet, BACnet MS/TP, BACnet Secure Connect, and BACnet Virtual Private Networks.

Networks often need to connect different technologies and generations of equipment. At the size of a deck of cards, the RC-FLEXlink can manage approximately 980 field devices and reduces the need for additional networking hardware.

Hardware Manager at Reliable Controls, Rudolf Erasmus, says customers shouldn’t have to replace functioning equipment just because network requirements are changing.

“The RC-FLEXlink gives our dealers more options to work with existing systems and to introduce technologies like BACnet Secure Connect and IPv6 where they make sense,” he says.

It also gives system designers more options for network architecture and segmentation, and helps facility owners adopt newer networking technologies without unnecessarily replacing functioning equipment.

Three Gigabit Ethernet ports provide logical wide area network and local area network segmentation, and three EIA-485 ports support field-level BACnet networks. Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol enables resilient Ethernet ring topologies, giving communications an alternate path if a connection is interrupted. USB-A and USB-C ports will support device hosting and service, and RC-Toolkit software is used for network configuration and management.

Find out more at the website.

Feature image courtesy of Reliable Controls.

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