Ether I/O 24 Users Manual V1.3
Elexol Pty Ltd Version 1.3
Page 12
http://www.elexol.com
E L E
X O L
E L E C T R O N I C
S O L U T I O N S
Network Enabling your PC linked machine or equipment
If you’re designing a new PC linked machine or piece of equipment, imagine the end
users delight at finding an Ethernet connection on the back that enables them to place
your new device anywhere in their facility that the network reaches and control or
monitor it from right from their own PC wherever it is located. Multiple users may even
be able to share the device or have scheduled or queued access to it.
The Ether I/O 24 has been designed for easy integration into other equipment. By using
the Ether I/O 24 module as the main interface board in your machine, all control
functions can be offloaded to a host PC, thus eliminating the need to develop and
program an embedded machine controller. The high speed of modern PCs allows
complex machine functions to be handled by the PC and the easy software development
environment of the PC enables more sophisticated machine operations and user interfaces
to be provided without the high development costs and unit costs of embedded
controllers. Your new devices’ software can now be easily updated or maintained via the
web. If a fault were to occur you could access all the machine’s functions remotely via
the Internet for instant diagnosis.
If higher speed or real time functions are required these can be implemented on your own
boards with connection back to the Ether I/O module for communication back to the
controlling PC. The Ether I/O 24 can easily communicate with your own boards by
synchronous serial or clocked parallel interface whereby a single packet from the host PC
can send up to 250 bytes of data to your board.
The Ether I/O 24 has been designed and physically laid out to simplify the task of users
wishing to incorporate the Ether I/O 24 as the principal interface element in their product.
The Ethernet and power connectors as well as the status LED indicators are aligned down
one edge of the board and the internal power outlets and I/O connectors aligned down the
adjacent edges. The I/O ports use low cost IDC connection cables and the board provides
500mA at 5V for your own circuitry as well as access to the main incoming power feed
for higher power devices. If your device has an internal power supply the board can be
fed from inside and the external connector used for powering ancillary external devices
or an Ethernet switch.
