Apex Digital Tracer, Reference Manual, Page: 7 / 39

3 Benefits and Features
3.1 Exective Summary
What is the Tracer? The Tracer is a standard digital I/O card utilizing 8255 style software interfacing. In addition, an 8254
counter/timer function is available for general use.
Description
What are the Benefits of using the Tracer? The Tracer has the following benefits:
• Digital I/O connectors organized to allow direct interfacing to OPTO-22’s isolated I/O racks including the G4 series, the
PB16-H, PB16-J, PB16-K, PB16-L, PB8H and the PB24HQ. All that is required is a 50-pin ribbon cable from the Tracer to any
of the OPTO-22 racks.
• High current capacity sinking 32mA on each digital output
• Broad selection of interrupt sources and software configurable.
• On-board LED to indicate general status and useful for system debugging. A wide variety of signals can be routed to the LED
via software selection.
• 8254 Counter/Timer operation to 40 MHz
• Counter/Timer can be easily configured to support quadrature encoder signals, see application note ( see page 32).
• Industrial temperature range from -40
o
C to +85
o
C
• No tantalum capacitors or electrolytic capacitors used in the design
3.2 Photo Tracer Reference Manual
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