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Industrial USB to Four RS-232, RS-422 and RS-485 Serial Communication Ports

2nd April 2009

ES Admin

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ACCES I/O Products has announced the release of the next-generation of serial communications adapters—Model USB-FLEXCOM4. The unit offers users the choice of four field selectable RS-232, RS-422, or RS-485 protocols per port. This serial module was designed for use in systems where there are never enough serial ports to communicate with legacy devices as well as applications where old-school serial protocols are still the right choice for the design of new systems.

The USB-FLEXCOM4 conforms to the USB/104 form factor for flexible mounting either in PC/104 or USB/104 stacks. The device is available either packaged in a small, rugged, industrial enclosure or as an OEM board (no enclosure). This USB device is an ideal solution for adding portable, easy-to-install serial ports to any PC or embedded system with a USB port. It is fully compatible with both USB 1.1 and USB 2.0 ports. Hot-plug functionality allows for quick connect/disconnect whenever you need additional I/O on your USB port. The low profile enclosure was designed to occupy less space overall and allow access to the four DB9M connectors, two per side for interfacing with communication cabling, and includes adjacent LEDs indicating serial port activity.

The USB-FLEXCOM4 is useful in applications such as point of sale with multiple peripherals, barcode scanners, scales, data collection terminals, automation equipment and includes industries such as gaming and defense where space is a valuable resource.

The USB-FLEXCOM4 is designed to be used in rugged industrial environments but is small enough to fit nicely onto any desk or testing station. The board measures just 3.550 by 3.775 inches and ships inside a steel powder-coated enclosure with an anti-skid bottom. A DIN rail mounting provision is available for installation in industrial environments. What makes the OEM USB/104 option unique is that its PCB size and pre-drilled mounting holes match the PC/104 form factor (without the bus connections). This ensures easy installation using standard standoffs inside most enclosures or systems. The USB-FLEXCOM4 can be integrated into any PCI-104 or PC/104 stack by connecting it to a simple USB port usually included on-board with embedded CPU form factors such as EBX, EPIC, and PC/104 — especially important since many newer CPU chipsets do not support ISA and have plenty of USB ports.

The USB-FLEXCOM4 is supported for use in most operating systems and includes a free Linux (including Mac OS X) and Windows 2000/XP/2003 compatible software package. This package contains sample programs and source code in Visual Basic, Delphi, and Visual C++ for Windows. Also incorporated is a graphical setup program in Windows. Third party support includes a Windows standard DLL interface usable from the most popular application programs, and includes example LabVIEW VIs. Embedded OS support includes Windows XPe.