DFI EC900-8MM-4GB Quad-Core NXP i.MX 8M Mini DIN Rail PC with Dual GbE, 2x COM and 4GB RAM

An edge gateway often ends up doing more than it was bought for: a container for the protocol stack, a local database, perhaps a browser page for the maintenance team. The EC900-8MM-4GB is the 4 GB build of the DFI EC900-8MM series, a small DIN rail PC in the slimmer EC900 case, rated from -5 °C to 60 °C, with memory to spare.

Compute is the NXP i.MX 8M Mini, a quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 at up to 1.8 GHz with its own video engine, paired with 4 GB of LPDDR4 on board. That suits protocol conversion, data logging, MQTT or OPC UA gateways and a small local HMI over HDMI. Storage is 8 GB of eMMC with a microSD socket, and the EC900-8MM-4GB runs Yocto 3.3 Linux on kernel 5.10.

The EC900-8MM-4GB has two GbE ports on RJ45, two USB 2.0 Type-A ports and an HDMI output at up to 1920 x 1080 at 60 Hz. Serial is one RS-485 port on a two-pole terminal block and one RS-422 port on a ten-pole terminal block it shares with the 4-bit DIO, and two RS-232 ports sit on internal headers for cabling inside a cabinet. Inside are a USB 2.0 header and a USB-C OTG port. An M.2 2230 E key slot takes an optional Wi-Fi and Bluetooth module, an M.2 2242/3042 B key slot with a Nano SIM takes an optional LTE module, and the case has two antenna openings.

Power is 9 to 36 V DC on a terminal block, at 4.6 W idle and 6.4 W maximum, so the EC900-8MM-4GB can share a 12 V or 24 V cabinet supply with PLCs and I/O. It is rated from -5 °C to 60 °C, with vibration testing to IEC 60068-2-64, and DFI lists CE, FCC Class A, UKCA and RoHS compliance. We supply it configured and tested, with the Linux image and any Wi-Fi or LTE module fitted, ready to clip to the rail. For -40 °C to 70 °C, the EC900-8MM-4GB-WT keeps the same I/O, and the EC910-8MM-4GB brings the RS-232 ports out on DB9.