CP-118U User’s Manual | Introduction |
Overview
Smartio—The Smart Multiport Async Solution
CP-118U is one of the newest members of Moxa’s well-known Smartio series of multiport serial boards, in which Smartio stands for Smart Multiport serial I/O solution. The 8-port RS-232/422/485 CP-118U board is designed for the plug-and-play 32-bit PCI bus, and is an economical solution for connecting terminals, modems, printers, scanners, cash registers, bar code readers, keypads, numeric displays, electronic scales, data acquisition equipment, and many other serial devices for the PC and compatible systems. The Smartio device driver makes full use of the 128 byte Tx/Rx FIFO and on-chip H/W and S/W flow control. Your applications will be capable of transmitting data without loss at speeds as high as 921.6 Kbps, providing a reliable, high performance solution for multiport serial communications.
PCI Solution
The CP-118U board complies with PCI Spec. 2.1. The serial transmission mode (RS-232, RS-422, 2-wire RS-485, or 4-wire RS-485) for each port is set with onboard switches, but the ports’ transmission parameters are configured after the board is installed. The IRQ and I/O addresses are assigned automatically by the PCI BIOS. For this reason, the board MUST be plugged into the computer before installing the driver. For more PCI information, refer to the “Technical Reference” appendix.
Surge Protection
The CP-118U board comes with built-in 15 KV ESD surge protection to prevent damage to the board from lightning or high potential voltage. The surge protection feature makes the CP-118U board suitable for industrial, factory-type applications, and for use with applications that are subject to severe weather conditions.
ADDC™ (Automatic Data Direction Control) for RS-485
To make 2-wire RS-485 half-duplex connections easier to manage, ADDC™ (Automatic Data Direction Control) intelligence is built into the CP-118U board, eliminating the need for software interference. This means that Windows applications can be set up to manage RS-485 ports without writing additional code to control the half-duplex protocol.
Operating System Support
The CP-118U board is compatible with all major industrial platforms, including Windows 2000/XP/2003, Windows NT, Windows 95/98/Me, DOS, and Linux. MOXA device drivers are provided for smoother installation, configuration, and performance. In this manual, we give installation details for Windows 2003/XP, Windows 2000, Windows NT, Windows 95/98, DOS, Linux, and SCO.
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Universal PCI
The 32/64-bit PCI local bus specification requires that PCI hardware be compatible with both 3.3V and 5V connector types. Moxa’s universal PCI cards can be plugged into 3.3V or 5V, and 32-bit or 64-bit slots.
MOXA Serial Comm Tool
For application development, MOXA provides an easy-to-use serial communication library called PComm that runs under Windows NT/2000/XP/2003/95/98. Use this library to develop your own applications with Visual Basic, Visual C++, Borland Delphi, etc. Utilities, such as Data Scope, Monitor, Terminal Emulator, and Diagnostics are included to make it easier to debug, monitor communication status, provide terminal emulation, and transfer files.