pml4791@rouge.usl.edu (Landry Patrick M) (05/16/91)
I am working on a project which needs to connect a bunch of manufacturing machines to a PC. The PC acts as a cell-controller for the manufacturing machines. Our prototype implementation was a hacked rs422 thing. We are now moving into a real implementation phase so i need to get educated about real multi-drop networking standards. Ideally the protocol would be cheap to implement, be able to run over twisted pair, and be able to communicate with the PC through the PCs serial port. Can someone please steer me in the right direction so I can get educated? Thanks - patrick pml@cacs.usl.edu
hendel@smc.smc.COM (Ariel Hendel) (05/18/91)
Subject: Re: Serial Multi-drop network info wanted In-Reply-To: your article <31099@rouge.usl.edu> News-Path: uunet!spool.mu.edu!rex!rouge!rouge.usl.edu > I am working on a project which needs to connect a bunch of manufacturing > machines to a PC. The PC acts as a cell-controller for the manufacturing > machines. Our prototype implementation was a hacked rs422 thing. We are > now moving into a real implementation phase so i need to get educated > about real multi-drop networking standards. Ideally the protocol would > be cheap to implement, be able to run over twisted pair, and be able > to communicate with the PC through the PCs serial port. > > Can someone please steer me in the right direction so I can get educated? > Thanks > - > patrick > pml@cacs.usl.edu We are addressing the manufacturing and industrial control with a special Arcnet controller that has the following characteristics: - 24 pin controller with 2kx8 RAM on-chip. - Runs the token passing Arcnet protocol at 2.5 Mbps (or less). - Interfaces micro controllers as well as CPUs. - Supports RS-485 multidrop networks for 20 nodes/700ft. - Provides deterministic access and flow control to the network. It looks like a UART from the interface point of view, but it gives you the lower overhead and expandability of a peer to peer packet switched network. The device number is 20020. If it looks like a relevant approach, there is literature you could get, as well as an 8051 based evaluation system. Hope it helps. Ariel Hendel Standard Microsystems Corp. (516) 273-3100 uunet!smc!hendel