Brainboxes, a leader in serial and Bluetooth connectivity, today launched its new range of PCI Express (PCIe) RS422/485 serial cards. The RS422/485 high speed cards have been engineered in-house by the Brainboxes technical team and are for use in industrial automation devices, Point of Sale systems and ATM cash machines. The RS422/485 cards are manufactured in the UK and will be available from Brainboxes and their resellers and distributors worldwide this month.

The RS422/485 boards are an addition to the PCIe RS232 range Brainboxes launched in January 2008, but provide higher speed operation and connections up to 4,000 feet., using noise resistant differential pair driver/recievers. Each serial port has 128 byte FIFOs, 1 MegaBoard data
transfers, 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.

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

Europe’s leading manufacturers of games machines uses Brainboxes’ RS422/485 cards for touch screen video gaming. The cards connect several machines and link back to a server in the back office, creating a simple network which is ideal for transmitting data over long distances and in noisy environments. A Brainboxes’ broadcast customer, which specialises in bespoke development in key TV & video technologies including teletext and subtitling, has its server connected up to broadcast automation systems via Brainboxes RS422/485 cards. These bring together the equipment such as the editing suite, video tapes, sound and interactive services, with teletext, before broadcast via transmitters into homes by the BBC, ITV and Cable TV stations. ”

The range of cards comprises of 1, 2 and 4 port 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.