From the official product positioning, the MH2 is an automation controller with an integrated EtherCAT protocol interface, belonging to Delta Automation's PC-based bus application architecture. It is equipped with an Intel Celeron J1900 2.4GHz quad-core processor and an AMI BIOS underlying operating system. The software architecture is a Windows 10 IoT-based RTE real-time control system extended through CODESYS. It is equipped with 4GB of DDR3L-1333 memory and 128kB of MRAM non-volatile memory, and integrates USB ports, serial communication ports, Gbps standard Ethernet ports, and PCI/PCIe expansion ports. It can be paired with storage devices such as CFast cards, SD cards, SSDs, and M.2 SSDs.
Opening the metal cover on the right side of the MH2 controller reveals a two-layer PCB structure, mounted on the heat sink on the left side of the controller (bottom of the image above). The upper PCB (right side of the controller) primarily houses the power supply and I/O circuits, while the lower PCB (left side of the controller) mainly contains chips for CPU processing, storage, communication, and other functions.
A close inspection of the upper PCB board (to the right of the controller) reveals an FPGA chip at ① on the upper left of the image above, used for expanding high-speed I/O. To its left at ② is an SDRAM chip, and at ③ on the lower left is a 32GB SSD. Judging from this configuration alone, DELTA is quite willing to invest in this product. At ④ in the lower right corner, the area appears to be the I/O input/output amplification circuitry, including optocouplers for isolation and protection.
The reverse side of this board is relatively simple overall, mainly showing the wiring connections between various components. At the top right corner (position ⑤) , there's a slot connecting to another PCB layer; at the center left (position ⑥ ), there's a PCIe Gigabit Ethernet communication chip, using Intel's I210AT, whose output is actually the EtherCAT interface on the right side of the controller. Based on the information currently available, this Ethernet port on the MH2 is essentially defined at the firmware level; if users need to use EtherCAT, they can only connect to this port.
Looking at the other PCB, the upper left corner shows the power supply circuit connecting to the upper PCB. At position ⑦ in the upper right corner, there are four small chips, presumably memory chips. At position ⑧ in the lower center, there are two more PCIe Gigabit Ethernet chips, also using Intel's I210AT. Their outputs are a pair of Ethernet GLONASS ports on the left side of the MH2 controller's front panel. Users can choose to run Modbus/TCP or TCP/IP on these two standard Ethernet ports.
The reverse side of this board is close to the inner wall of the heat sink on the left side of the controller. We did not disassemble it further here, but it appears that the main CPU and memory chips are located here.
Regarding the performance of this controller, an integrator friend who tested it reported that the MH2's axis cycle time is basically 1ms for 16 axes, with occasional instability. For complex applications, it is recommended to set it to 2ms for greater stability. In addition, regarding control communication, we have not yet found jitter data for this controller, but it seems that its performance limit is basically 16 axes. If you want to run cam functions, the cycle control period needs to be more than 1ms to be relatively stable.
Overall, the design of the MH2 is relatively conventional, but from the hardware layout and some details, it's clear that DELTA has put a lot of thought into the economics of product manufacturing. For example:
There wasn't any deliberate attempt at compact design, but the utilization rate of components across the two PCB layers was still quite good;
The product casing was not CNC machined or separately molded; instead, it was made by bending metal sheet ribs.
The heat sink also uses standard parts and has not undergone any special processing;
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From what I understand, among controller products with similar configurations, the MH2 is quite competitively priced, which I believe is related to its design.
