Brainboxes, a leader in Serial and Bluetooth connectivity, today releases its first Opto Isolated PCI Express RS422/485 products. These 1 & 2 port, low profile and standard height, high speed cards are the latest releases into this rapidly growing range. Since launching the PCI Express range last year 10 RS232 products have now been released with 5 recent additions in the RS422/485 versions. This range has continued to receive excellent feedback from end users in various industries in a wide range of applications.

The latest products to be released in to this range are:

• PX-376 – PCIe Low Profile 1xRS422/485 1MBaud Opto Isolated
• PX-387 – PCIe 1xRS422/485 1MBaud Opto Isolated
• PX-310 – PCIe 2xRS422/485 1MBaud Opto Isolated

RS422/485 signals can have data runs of up to 4000 feet, when computers and peripherals are interconnected across such distances the different devices may well be supplied by mains power that has differing ground voltage causing currents to flow in the ground connections etc. Opto
isolation will prevent this causing problems by each side of the circuit have signals and grounds that are isolated from the PC or devices power ground, helping signal integrity, cutting electrical noise and improving safety. Opto isolation also acts as a barrier to power surges and spikes. An all round winning solution when data integrity and equipment long levity is required

The RS422/485 boards have 1 MegaBoard data transfer speeds and have 128 byte FIFOs with on board Hardware and Software flow control. RS422 and RS485 are bus systems and up to 32 standard load or 128 low load devices per port can be connected. RS422 is supported with dedicated pairs for TxD, RxD, RTS and CTS signals. RS485 systems are supported in both Full Duplex mode using 2 pairs of wires and in Half Duplex mode using 1 pair of wires. The Half Duplex mode uses Brainboxes proven 485 Autogating circuitry for automatically turning the line around from receive to transmit and back again whenever the PC needs to send data to devices, a necessity in today’s multi-tasking operating systems like Windows and Linux. They also come with Brainboxes’ acclaimed customer support package, including Lifetime Warranty &
Support, that makes Brainboxes stand out above other manufacturers and makes us the serial card supplier of choice for companies around the world.

Eamonn Walsh, Brainboxes Managing Director stated “These products have been designed to meet the continual demand for high reliability 422/485 serial connections in the Industrial Sectors. For example:

An industrial PC solutions provider uses Brainboxes’ RS422/485 opto isolated cards in an application for a gas and oil company. They are used in a custom PC build for the monitoring and control of onshore and offshore oil and gas drilling and production platforms. The PC is located at the platform and monitor the performance of the drill head. In many cases the location of such installations provides harsh environmental conditions such as extreme high and low temperatures, dirt, dust, and constant vibration.

The full range will consist of 1, 2 and 4 port RS422/485 cards with opto isolation options available, and are supplied with an installation CD including manual, Microsoft signed drivers & utilities. Brainboxes is a Microsoft Certified Gold Partner and these cards are compatible with 32 bit and 64 bit editions of Windows Server 2008, Vista, XP, Server 2003 and 2000. It also comes with Brainboxes’ acclaimed Serial Solutions software, which is installed in hundreds of thousands of systems worldwide and is recognised to provide industry leading stability and reliability.