IO-Link Device Electronic Keying

The Electronic Keying feature for IO-Link devices automatically compares the expected device to the physical device before connection is established. You can use Electronic Keying to help prevent connection to a device that does not match the type and revision expected.

For each device, the selected keying option determines if, and how, an Electronic Keying check is performed.

The three keying options that are available are:

Compatible Module (default)
Exact Match
Disable Keying

Compatible Module is the default setting. The following three keying attributes of the configured device and the physical device must match:

IO-Link Vendor ID
IO-Link Device ID
IO-Link Revision

If the Exact Match option is selected, the following four keying attributes of the configured device and the physical device must match:

IO-Link Vendor ID
IO-Link Device ID
IO-Link Revision
Device Firmware Revision

Also for Exact Match, the physical device must not be emulating another device (if the device supports multiple device IDs).

Disable Keying indicates that the keying attributes are not considered when attempting to communicate with a IO-Link device. With Disabled Keying, the IO-Link connection can occur with a device other than the type specified in the I/O configuration tree with unpredictable results.