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This is only a preview of the March 1998 issue of Silicon Chip. You can view 43 of the 96 pages in the full issue, including the advertisments. For full access, purchase the issue for $10.00 or subscribe for access to the latest issues. Articles in this series:
Items relevant to "Sustain Unit For Electric Guitars":
Items relevant to "Multi-Purpose Fast Battery Charger; Pt.2":
Items relevant to "Command Control For Model Railways; Pt.3":
Items relevant to "PC-Controlled Liquid Crystal Display Board":
Articles in this series:
Articles in this series:
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Norbiton Systems PC
bus digital I/O kit
Norbiton Systems, based in Western Australia,
has released a range of PC boards which, when
interconnected, provide a complete data
acquisition system. The individual PC boards are
available as kits or can be purchased assembled
and tested for a reasonable additional cost.
Review by RICK WALTERS
All the PC boards appear of the
highest quality, being double-sided
with plated-through holes and silk
screened overlays. This type of board
is not recommended for beginners to
learn to solder on.
The currently available boards
are the computer interface card
(NS_PC101), a LED interface card
(NS_LED), a system condi
t ioning
card (NS_16_8), 2 power supply cards
(NS_DC_DC and NSDC_DC1) and a
42 Silicon Chip
utility card (NS_UTIL1).
The computer interface (I/O) card
must be plugged into an empty slot
on your PC motherboard and jumpers
set to assign it a free address. The as
sembled board is supplied jumpered
to 170 Hex but if this address is cur
rently in use (often by a sound card)
then the supplied software allows you
to locate a free address.
This interface card allows your
program (in Basic, Pascal, Assembler
or any other) access to 48 lines, pro
grammable in groups of eight as either
inputs or outputs. Forty of these lines
are fed via a 50-way ribbon cable to
the power supply card. The other
eight are brought out to a header on
the I/O card.
The power supply card produces
5V DC for the rest of the Norbiton
system from an external 11-35V DC
power supply or a suitable battery
and prevents any loading of the
computer’s power supply by these
additional cards. If ±12V are needed
(for the conditioning or utility cards),
then an inverter module (NSDC_DC1),
which generates these voltages, can be
plugged onto the power supply card.
The output from the power supply
card can be connected to the LED
card, again via a 50-way cable which
loops the I/O card outputs through the
power supply and picks up the power
supply voltages. The LEDs on this
card monitor the status (high, low)
of 40 output lines from the I/O card.
The LED card is connected to the
utility card, again with a 50-way ca
ble. The utility card has a 1580-hole
prototyping board mounted on it
along with a 25-way “D” connector
and a stack of jumpers. It has access
to any three of the five I/O groups
by using these jumpers and can use
the internal 5V supply for loads up
to 2A or an external supply if higher
currents are needed.
The conditioning card, believe it or
not, is connected to the utility card
with a fourth 50-way cable. This type
of connection is relatively cheap and
simple, the only drawback being the
limited current capacity, as already
mentioned.
This card has 16 opto-isolated in
puts which can be operated by 12V or
24V equipment. 12 are wired for logic
high input, the other four have toggle
switches to select active low or active
high input. All inputs have LEDs to
monitor their status.
The card also has eight single-pole
changeover relays with a contact
current rating of 10A. Again the
relay drivers are opto-isolated from
the logic and each relay has a LED to
show its state.
The board’s inputs (16) and outputs
(8) are link selectable to any of the 5
groups in the 50-way cable and only
use 24 of the 40 lines, leaving 16 free
for other functions.
What can it do?
So much for the introduction. What
can it do?
This is certainly where the beginner
can become unstuck. The documen
tation is sparse but adequate for an
yone used to PC interfacing and STE
or VME bus equipment but for those
(such as schools) who have purchased
the system for beginners, the material
supplied is inadequate.
There needs to be a set of instruc
tions which take you, step by step,
from opening the computer and plug
ging in the I/O card, through program
ming the interface (probably in Basic
as this is often taught in schools), right
through to explaining in much greater
detail how the individual ports are
addressed.
This should be followed with code
examples which allow single instruc
tions to be issued which, for example,
will turn one individual LED in a
selected group on and off.
As I have said previously, it’s all
there, it just needs to be much more
readily accessible and user friendly.
I guess this last statement really
sums it up: a great system, well
thought out and flexible, but lacking
the documentation which makes it
a pleasure to use instead of a chore.
From our discussions with Norb
iton we understand that they have
arranged to have the documentation
upgraded as soon as possible.
Some of the pricing is as follows:
The interface card kit (NS_PC101kit) is $129, the LED interface card
kit (NS_LED-kit) is $99, the system
conditioning card kit (NS_16_824K5) is $265 and the utility card kit
is $245. These prices include sales
tax and there are reductions avail
able during March and April. Fully
assembled versions of all the boards
are available.
Where to buy it
Further information on pricing
and availability can be obtained from
Norbiton Systems, PO Box 687, WA
6968. Email Norbiton<at>bigpond.com
SILICON
CHIP
This advertisment is out of date and has been
removed to prevent confusion.
March 1998 43
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