EPX-C414/Best Practices
v1.0
www.winsystems.com
Page 69
Avoid Over-tightening of Mounting Hardware
—Causing the area around the mounting
holes to compress could damage interlayer traces around the mounting holes.
Use Appropriate Tools
—Always use tools that are appropriate for working with small
hardware. Large tools can damage components around the mounting holes.
Avoid Conductive Surfaces
—Never allow the embedded computer module to be
placed on a conductive surface. Many embedded systems use a battery to back up the
clock-calendar and CMOS memory. A conductive surface such as a metal bench can
short the battery causing premature failure.
Adding PC/104 Boards to Your Stack
Be careful when adding PC/104 boards to your stack
—Never allow the power to be
turned on when a PC/104 board has been improperly plugged onto the stack. It is
possible to misalign the PC/104 card and leave a row of pins on the end or down the
long side hanging out of the connector. If power is applied with these pins misaligned, it
causes the I/O board to be damaged beyond repair.
Conformal Coating
Applying conformal coating to a WinSystems product does not in itself void the product
warranty, if it is properly removed prior to return. Coating may change thermal
characteristics and impedes our ability to test, diagnose, and repair products. Any
coated product sent to WinSystems for repair will be returned at customer expense and
no service will be performed.
WinSystems offers conformal coating services. Contact an Applications Engineer for
details.
Operations/Product Manuals
Every single board computer has an Operations manual or Product manual.
Periodic Updates
—Operations/Product manuals are updated often. Periodically check
the WinSystems website (
) for revisions.
Check Pinouts
—Always check the pinout and connector locations in the manual before
plugging in a cable. Many I/O modules have identical headers for different functions and
plugging a cable into the wrong header can have disastrous results.
Contact an Applications Engineer
—If a diagram or chart in a manual does not seem to
match your board, or if you have additional questions, contact a WinSystems
Applications Engineer at: +1-817-274-7553.
