ACCES PCIe-COM232-8, PCIe-COM232-4 PCI Express Multi-Port Low Profile Serial Communications Cards User Manual

ACCES PCIe-COM232-8, PCIe-COM232-4 PCI Express Multi-Port Low Profile

Serial Communications Cards

Product Usage Instructions

• Safety Precautions
  • Always ensure the computer power is OFF when connecting or disconnecting field cabling. Before installing the card, turn off the computer to prevent damage to the I/O card.
• Warranty Information
  • ACCES equipment is thoroughly inspected and tested before shipment. In case of equipment failure, ACCES offers prompt service and support.
  • The warranty coverage includes repair or replacement subject to specific conditions.
• Hardware Details
  • The card dimensions are provided in Figure 3-1 of the user manual. Refer to this figure for detailed measurements.

FAQs

• Q: What are the common applications of the PCIe-COM232-8?
  • A: The card is commonly used in POS systems, gaming machines, transportation stations, telecommunications, industrial automation, ATM systems, multiple terminal control, office automation, and kiosks.

Introduction

• The PCI Express Multiport Serial cards were designed for RS232 asynchronous communications for use in a variety of applications.
• These boards were designed to offer compatibility with the PCI Express bus and to be used by system integrators and manufacturers in the design of industrial and commercial communication systems.
• The card is available in 8-port and 4-port versions and is compatible with all popular operating systems.
• Each RS232 port is capable of supporting data rates up to 921.6kbps (460.8kbps version is standard) and implements full modem control signals to ensure compatibility with a wide range of serial peripherals.
• Existing serial peripherals can connect directly to the industry standard DB9M connectors which are provided via an available cable.
• The board features a x1 lane PCI Express connector which can be used in any x1, x2, x4, x8, x12, or x16 PCI Express slot.

Features

• Eight- or four-port PCI Express RS-232 serial communications
• Low profile MD1 form factor, MD1 defines the shortest standard card length available
• High-performance 16C950 class UARTs with 128-byte FIFO for each TX and RX
• Supports data communication speeds up to 921.6kbps (standard model 460.8kbps)
• +/-15kV ESD protection on all signal pins
• Full modem control signals
• Software compatible with all operating systems
• Plug and Play, no jumpers to configure
• 3‟ breakout cable terminating with industry-standard DB9M connectors

Applications

• POS (Point-of-sale) Systems
• Gaming Machines
• Transportation Stations
• Telecommunications
• Industrial Automation
• ATM (Automated Teller Machine) Systems
• Multiple terminal control
• Office Automation
• Kiosks

Functional Description

• These cards feature high-performance 16C950 class UARTs which support the complete register set of the standard 16C550-type devices.
• The UARTs support operations in 16C450, 16C550, and 16C950 modes.
• Each port is capable of data communication speeds up to 921.6kbps (standard model up to 460.8kbps) in asynchronous mode and has 128-byte deep transmit and receive FIFOs to protect against lost data in multitasking operating systems, to help reduce CPU utilization and to improve data throughput.
• The card features a x1 lane PCIe connector which can be used in any available PCIe slot width.
• The low-profile MD1 form factor allows the card to be installed in small embedded systems where a standard MD2 low-profile card will not fit.
• The card can be used in both a standard profile chassis or in a low profile chassis when used with the correct mounting bracket.
• Our PCI Express RS-232 cards ship with a standard height PCIe mounting bracket installed.
• This bracket also has threaded inserts above and below the VHDCI 68-pin connector to facilitate the installation of the strengthening bracket accessory.
• The industrialized strengthening bracket accessory protects against damage to the very high-density I/O card-mounted connector when side-to-side tension can occur on the breakout cable.
• A crystal oscillator is located on the card. This oscillator permits a precise selection of standard baud rates.

Ordering Guide

• PCIe-COM232-8 PCI Express eight-port RS-232 card with standard height mounting bracket and a 3‟ DB9M breakout cable
• PCIe-COM232-8NC PCI Express eight-port RS-232 card with standard height mounting bracket without cable
• PCIe-COM232-4 PCI Express four-port RS-232 card with standard height mounting bracket and a 3‟ DB9M breakout cable
• PCIe-COM232-4NC PCI Express four-port RS-232 card with standard height mounting bracket without cable

Model Options

• -F Fast RS-232 transceivers (up to 921.6kbps)
• -L Low-profile mounting bracket
• -T Extended Operating Temperature of -40°C to +85°C
• -RoHS RoHS RoHS-compliant version
• -W Wake-up enable (see Chapter 3: Hardware Details)

Optional Accessories

Special Order

• Virtually any custom baud rate can be achieved with the standard card (see Table 5-2: Sample Baud Rate Setting) and still be within the standard tolerance range for serial communications.
• If that method doesn‟t produce an exact enough baud rate a custom crystal oscillator may be specified, contact the factory with your precise requirement.
• Other specials: conformal coating, custom software, RJ-45 connectivity, special breakout boxes, etc., we will work with you to provide exactly what is required.

Included with your board

• The following components are included with your shipment, depending on the options ordered.
• Please take the time now to ensure that no items are damaged or missing.
• Eight- or four-port card with standard height mounting bracket
• 3‟ breakout cable to DB9M connectors
• Software Master CD
• Quick-Start Guide

Installation

• A printed Quick-Start Guide (QSG) is packed with the card for your convenience. If you‟’ve already performed the steps from the QSG, you may find this chapter to be redundant and may skip forward to begin developing your application.
• The software is provided with this card on the CD and must be installed onto your hard disk before use. Perform the following steps as appropriate for your operating system.
• A complete driver support package is provided including an easy-to-use Windows terminal program for testing out your COM ports. This simplifies the verification of proper COM port operating. The card installs as standard COM ports in all operating systems.
• A software reference manual is installed as part of the software and support package for this product. Please refer to this document for extensive information and guidance on software tools and programming support at your disposal.

CD Software Installation

The following instructions assume the CD-ROM drive is drive “D”. Please substitute the appropriate drive letter for your system as necessary.
DOS

1. Place the CD into your CD-ROM drive.
2. Type to change the active drive to the CD-ROM drive.
3. Type to run the install program.
4. Follow the on-screen prompts to install the software for this board.

Windows

1. Place the CD into your CD-ROM drive.
2. The system should automatically run the install program. If the install program does not run promptly, click START | RUN and type , click OK or press .
3. Follow the on-screen prompts to install the software for this board.

Linux

1. Please refer to linux.htm on the CD-ROM for information on installing under Linux.
   • Note: COM boards can be installed in virtually any operating system. We do support installation in earlier versions of Windows and are also likely to support future versions.

Hardware Installation

Caution! * ESD A single static discharge can damage your card and cause premature failure! Please follow all reasonable precautions to prevent a static discharge such as grounding yourself by touching any grounded surface before touching the card.

1. Do not install the card into the computer until the software has been fully installed.
2. Turn OFF computer power AND unplug AC power from the system.
3. Remove the computer cover.
4. Carefully install the card in an available PCIe expansion slot (you may need to remove a backplate first).
5. Inspect for proper fit of the card and install and tighten the mounting bracket screw. Make sure that the card mounting bracket is properly screwed into place and that there is a positive chassis ground.
6. Install a cable onto the card‟s bracket mounted connector
7. If you purchased the optional DB9M breakout cable, you may have also purchased the connector / cable stabilization bracket, which should be installed at this time
   • Figure 2-1: Installed Cards with Stability Bracket Accessories
8. Replace the computer cover and turn ON the computer.
9. Most computers should auto-detect the card (depending on the operating system) and automatically finish installing the drivers.
10. Run one of the provided sample programs that was copied to the newly created card directory (from the CD) to test and validate your installation.

Hardware Details

There are no user-selectable options for this card, only factory options.

• Fast RS-232 transceivers (-F)
  • The standard RS-232 transceivers used are capable of speeds up to 460.8kbps which is adequate in many applications. For this factory option, the board is populated with high-speed
  • RS-232 transceivers enable error-free communications at up to 921.6kbps.
• Low-profile mounting bracket (-L)
  • For system designers where space is limited, we offer a low-profile mounting bracket option.
  • The strengthening bracket accessory can not be used with this option.
• Remote Wake-Up (-W)
  • The “Remote Wake-Up” factory option is for use in applications where the host computer (the one this card would be installed in) enters the L2 low-power state where its main power is turned off though VAUX is still applied. When the Ring Indicator is received on serial port channel A in the L2 power state, Wake-Up is asserted.
• Extended temperature (-T)
  • This factory option is for use in harsh environments and is populated with all-industrial-rated components, specified at a minimum temperature range of -40°C to +85°C.
• RoHS compliance (-RoHS)
  • For international customers and other special requirements, this factory option is available in RoHS-compliant versions.
• VHDCI connector
  • These cards use an Amphenol 68-pin VHDCI (Very High Density Cable Interconnect) connector. They are SCSI-III type, female, right-angle with screw locks and a 1.6mm pitch.

Address Selection

• The card uses one I/O address space PCI BAR[0].
• COM A, COM B, COM C, COM D, COM E, COM F, COM G and COM H each occupy eight consecutive register locations.
• These COM designations correlate to the corresponding DB9 on the breakout cable, which is labeled as such.
• Please note – for 4-port card versions, the ports will be installed as:
• COM A, COM B, COM C and COM H.
• The breakout cable will have the corresponding port labels near the DB9 connectors.
• The Vendor ID for the card is 494F.
• The Device ID for the 8-port card is 10A9h.
• The Device ID for the 4-port card is 1098h.

Programming

• Sample Programs
  • There are sample programs with source code provided with the card in a variety of common languages. DOS samples are located in the DOS directory and Windows samples are located in the WIN32 directory.
• Windows COM Utility Program
  • WinRisc is a COM utility program provided on CD with the installation package for this card that is very useful when working with any serial ports and serial devices. If you have ‟t used this program yet, do yourself a favor and run this program to test out your COM ports.
• Windows Programming
  • The card installs into Windows as COM ports. Thus the Windows standard API functions can be used. In particular:
  • CreateFile() and CloseHandle() for opening and closing a port.
  • SetupComm(), SetCommTimeouts(), GetCommState(), and SetCommState() to set and change a port‟s settings.
  • ReadFile() and WriteFile() for accessing a port.
  • See the documentation for your chosen language for details.
  • In DOS the process is identical to programming 16550-compatible UARTs.
• Baud Rate Generation
  • The built-in Baud Rate Generator (BRG) allows a wide range of input frequencies and flexible Baud Rate generation. To obtain the desired Baud Rate, the user can set the Sample Clock Register (SCR),
  • Divisor Latch Low Register (DLL), Divisor Latch High Register (DLH), and Clock Prescale Registers (CPRM and CPRN). The Baud Rate is generated according to the following equation:
  • The parameters in the equation above can be programmed by setting the “SCR”, “DLL”, “DLH”, “CPRM” and “CPRN” registers according to the table below.
    Setting| Description
    ---|---
    Divisor| DLL + (256 DLH)
    Prescaler| 2 M- 1 (SampleClock + N )
    SampleClock| 16 – SCR , (SCR = „0h‟ to „Ch‟)
    M| CPRM, (CPRM = „01h‟ to „02h‟)
    N| CPRN, (CPRN = „0h‟ to „7h‟)
  • Table 5-1: Baud Rate Generator Setting
  • To ensure the proper operation of the Baud Rate Generator, users should avoid setting the value „0‟ to Sample Clock, Divisor, and Prescaler.
  • The following table lists some of the commonly used Baud Rates and the register settings that generate a specific Baud Rate. The examples assume an Input Clock frequency of 14.7456 Mhz.
  • The SCR register is set to „0h‟, and the CPRM and CPRN registers are set to „1h‟ and „0h‟ respectively.
  • In these examples, the Baud Rates can be generated by different combinations of the DLH and DLL register values.
    Baud Rate| DLH| DLL
    ---|---|---
    1,200| 3h| 00h
    2,400| 1h| 80h
    4,800| 0h| C0h
    9,600| 0h| 60h
    19,200| 0h| 30h
    28,800| 0h| 20h
    38,400| 0h| 18h
    57,600| 0h| 10h
    115,200| 0h| 08h
    921,600| 0h| 01h
  • Table 5-2: Sample Baud Rate Setting
• We re-define the parameter of “Baudrate” on the DCB structure,
  • Bit[30:28]: User Defined Baudrate, this value has to be non-zero
  • Bit[27:24]: to indicate the value of SCR (SampleClock)
  • Bit[23:16]: to indicate the value to put in DLH
  • Bit[15:8]: to indicate the value to put in DLL
  • Bit[7:3]: to indicate the value to put in M (CPRM)
  • Bit[2:0]: to indicate the value to put in N (CPRN)
• If you want to set
  • DLL=1
  • DLH=0
  • SCR=12
• then, the parameters of Baudrate in the DCB structure should be set to 0x1c000108. When the driver finds the parameter “Baudrate” does not exist on the default baud rate table, and Bit 28 is set to “1”, it will get the values of SCR, DLL, DLH, M, and N from the Baudrate parameter and set to the registers directly.

Connector Pin Assignments

Input/Output Connections

• The serial communications ports are available to the user via a female 68-pin VHDCI D connector.
• There is an available breakout cable terminating in eight (or four) individual D-sub 9-pin connectors.
• The cable is permanently labeled near each DB9 connector with the port letter.
• Four port cards ordered with a breakout cable will have four D-sub 9-pin connectors, labeled COM A, COM B, COM C, and COM H.
• The RS-232 specification allows for a maximum recommended length of 50‟ due to the single-ended signaling line drivers.
• To ensure that there is minimum susceptibility to EMI and minimum radiation, it is important that the card mounting bracket be properly screwed into place and that there be a positive chassis ground.
• Also, proper EMI cabling techniques (cable connected to chassis ground at the aperture, shielded twisted-pair wiring, etc.) should be used for the input/output wiring.
  DB-9 Male Pin x=A-H| RS-232 Signal Names| Signal Descriptions
  ---|---|---
  Ch x – 1| DCD| Data Carrier Detected
  Ch x – 2| RX| Receive Data
  Ch x – 3| TX| Transmit Data
  Ch x – 4| DTR| Data Terminal Ready
  Ch x – 5| GND| Signal Ground
  Ch x – 6| DSR| Data Set Ready
  Ch x – 7| RTS| Request To Send
  Ch x – 8| CTS| Clear to Send
  Ch x – 9| RI| Ring Indicator
• Table 6-1: Connector Pin Assignments
• For best results, termination is recommended for any control signals not being used in your application wherever possible.
• Typical applications accomplish this by connecting DSR and DTR to DCD, as well as connecting the RI and CTS pins to the RTS pin.
• Figure 6-1: Male DB9 Connector Pin Locations

VHDCI 68-Pin D-Connector

Connections will normally be made to the D-Sub 9-pin connectors through the breakout cable. In case you wish to connect directly to the 68-pin connector, the pins translate as follows.

Table 6-2: VHDCI 68-Pin Female D-Connector Pin Assignments

1. Pin 33 on the 68-pin connector is Ground, common to Pin 5 on each of the DB-9 connectors associated with COM Channels A, B, C, and D.
2. Pin 67 on the 68-pin connector is Ground, common to Pin 5 on each of the DB-9 connectors associated with COM Channels E, F, G, and H.

Pins 34 and 68 on the 68-Pin VHDCI D-Connector are Ground.

Figure 6-2: VHDCI 68-Pin Female D-Connector Pin Locations.

Specifications

• Communications Interface
  • I/O connection: 68-pin female VHDCI SCSI-Type III connector with screw locks
  • Serial ports: 8 or 4 RS-232 ports
  • Serial data rates: Up to 921.6k baud asynchronous (460.8k standard)
  • UART: Octal type 16C950 with 128-byte transmit & receive FIFO,N16C550 compliant
  • Character length: 5, 6, 7, or 8 bits
  • Parity: Even, Odd, None, Space, Mark
  • Stop interval: 1, 1.5, or 2 bits
  • Flow control: RTS/CTS and/or DSR/DTR, Xon/Xoff
  • ESD protection: ±15kV on all signal pins
  • Cable: 3‟ shielded breakout cable terminated with male D-sub 9-pin connectors
• Environmental
  • Operating Temperature: Commercial: 0°C to +70°C
  • Industrial: -40°C to +85°C
  • Storage temperature: -65°C to +150°C
  • Humidity: 5% to 95%, non-condensing
  • Power Required: +3.3VDC at 0.9W (typical)
  • Size: 4.72 inches long x 2.20 inches high (120mm long x 55.8mm high)
• Customer Comments
  • If you experience any problems with this manual or just want to give us some feedback, please email us at: manuals@accesio.com.
  • Please detail any errors you find and include your mailing address so that we can send you any manual updates.

Assured Systems

Assured Systems is a leading technology company with over 1,500 regular clients in 80 countries, deploying over 85,000 systems to a diverse customer base in 12 years of business. We offer high-quality and innovative rugged computing, display, networking, and data collection solutions to the embedded, industrial, and digital-out-of-home market sectors.

CONTACT INFORMATION

• US
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  • Sales: +44 (0)1785 879 050
  • Support: +44 (0)1785 879 050
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  • 10623 Roselle Street, San Diego CA 92121
  • Tel. (858)550-9559
  • FAX (858)550-7322
  • www.accesio.com.
  • www.assured-systems.com
  • sales@assured-systems.com.
  • FILE: MPCIe-COM232-8.A1r
  • 10623 Roselle Street, San Diego, CA 92121
  • 858-550-9559
  • FAX 858-550-7322
  • contactus@accesio.com
  • www.accesio.com.

References

• Industrial Embedded Computers and Displays - Assured Systems
• Industrial Embedded Computers and Displays - Assured Systems
• Industrial Embedded Computers and Displays - Assured Systems

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