B&B Electronics Buffered Smart Switch manual Introduction, Documentation Number 232BSS4-2907m

Chapter 1 – Introduction

The 232BSS4 provides communications to four devices from one serial port. Each port uses a dedicated UART and includes an 8K byte transmit buffer and an 8K byte receive buffer (16K bytes total). Each port can be independently configured for data rate, data format, and protocol. The Master port can send and receive data from one of the Slave ports while the other Slave ports continue to buffer data. The Master device can also broadcast the same message to two or more Slave ports at once.

The 232BSS4 can be configured to send data automatically to the Master port from each of the Slave ports when data is present with an optional preamble identifying the port. It can also provide two-way communications between the Master port and one Slave port at a time. Switching and control is done through user-defined three or four character command strings. All control sequences are removed from the data stream, making the switch transparent to the Slave devices. The PC setup software provided walks the user through all possible parameters.

Switches can be cascaded to expand the 232BSS4 to more than four ports. Two units can also be used back-to-back to provide automatic connection between devices over a single data channel. LEDs on the 232BSS4 indicate when the unit is powered up and which port is selected to send data to the Master port.

Documentation Number 232BSS4-2907m 1

&B Electronics Mfg Co Inc – 707 Dayton Rd - PO Box 1040 - Ottawa IL 61350 - Ph 815-433-5100 - Fax 815-433-5104 – www.bb-elec.com

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