Although the RS232 protocol specifies functions for as many as 25 pins, each communications channel requires only three for simple serial interfaces: TxD1 (transmit data), RxD1 (receive data), and DGND (digital ground). It controls the serial-to-parallel and parallel-to-serial conversion and performs all of the timing functions necessary for asynchronous serial communications. Given the availability of ready-made communications cables, it is not necessary to study or understand the following descriptions of cable connections. Since RS-485 is a multi-point specification, however, this is not necessary or desirable in many cases. RS485 is specified for multi-point communicates where multiples devices have their own address on the same communication line, while RS232 is only specified for point-to-point communications. These detailed signal descriptions and cable diagrams are presented to provide complete information for those who have special communications requirements and for those who wish to make their own application-specific communications cables. These cables allow the dual RJ11 jacks of the RS485 option board of Laureate meters (digital interface ordering option 2) to be daisy chained and to be addressed digitally with no need for a hub. If your computer does not have an RS-232 serial port, low cost USB-to-RS-232 serial cables are available; contact Mosaic Industries for details.

In fact, the program works the same as it did before, but now it is using the secondary serial port instead of the primary port -- and you didn’t even have to recompile the code! The primary channel’s UART translates the bit-by-bit data on the serial cable into bytes of data that can be interpreted by the QED-Forth Kernel or by your application program. The maximum number of devices that can be connected to a main cable is 32, including the Master. The SCK pin’s synchronous clock signal has configurable phase, polarity and baud rate so that it can interface to a variety of synchronous serial devices. In these distributed processing networks, a variety of machines and instruments work locally, but communicate and share data or resources with one another globally using a single serial link. Unlike the standard RS232 protocol, RS485 allows many communicating parties to share the same 3-wire communications cable. RS232 allows both communicating parties to transmit and receive data at the same time; this is referred to as full duplex communications. Otherwise a full 6 wire cable must be used. The status of a device as master or slave determines how the various pins must be configured.

If you are running Serial2 at 4800 baud, the rest of your application must be able to function properly using the remaining portion of the CPU time. Although the maximum standard baud rate of the primary serial port is 19200 baud, nonstandard baud rates of over 80 Kbaud can be attained by the 68HC11's on-chip UART and the onboard RS232 driver. The wide supply voltage range also means that you can allow for a significant voltage drop along the bus (e.g., when using a bus cable of considerable length). To provide a convenient means of attaching two grounds to the serial cable, there are several pins (labeled GND) on the communications connector that are connected to the controller’s ground plane. There are several protocols that govern the format of exchanged data, with the RS232 protocol used primarily by personal computers, and the RS485 protocol used in industrial control systems. There are surface mount resistor pads on the QScreen that will allow you to bring out the secondary serial port to the Field Header on pins 5-6 or 7-8 as shown with the parentheses in Table 11-3. Pads are also available to bring out the RS485 signals to the DB9 Serial 1 Connector.

Likewise, rs485 cable the terminal’s transmit signal TxD is connected to the QScreen Controller’s receive signal RxD1. The QScreen Controller’s transmit data signal TxD1 (pin 2 on the 9-pin serial connector) is connected to the terminal’s receive data signal RxD (pin 2 on its 9-pin connector). The terminal’s serial receiver chip re-inverts the signal to its positive sense. A Unit Load is defined as a passive transmitter (in OFF-state) plus a receiver. When the exchange is complete, the slave can again execute the Silence() routine to disable its transmitter and begin listening for its name. The Serial 1 port can be configured for either RS232 or RS485 communications at up to 19200 baud. The Serial 2 port is dedicated to RS232 communications at up to 4800 baud. We can gain insight into the operation of the RS232 protocol by examining the signal connections used for the primary serial port in Table 9 6. The transmit and receive data signals carry the messages being communicated between the QScreen Controller and the PC or terminal. The RS232 protocol specifies the use of two separate grounds, a signal ground and a protective (or "chassis") ground. The two values provide a sufficient margin for a reliable data transmission even under severe signal degradation across the cable and connectors.