30 Mar 2009

Moxa's complete Serial to Fiber Converters Family Introduction

In the film, we can see the introduction of how wide the serial to fiber conversion solutions that Moxa provide.



For more detail, you can go to this link

6 Mar 2009

ICF-1150 is the best serial fiber converter

Except the basic serial to fiber conversion, there are 3 powerful functions on this product and they are: 3-way communication, Rotary switch for pull high/low resistors and galvanic isolation.

Now you can find it in these countries:
USA
USA2
Korea
Japan
Russia 1
Russia 2
Swedan
Switzerland
Italy
Australia
China
Ukraine
Czech Republic
Belgium

Use fiber converter in Track Power Substation

We found that many substation are still using RS-422/485 as the main bus for long distance communication. One of the reasons is the protocol is simple and stable.

In a substation, there are many meters to record voltage, current, or harmonic, etc.
Most of the meters are using RS-485 to be the communication interface. Modbus is also very popular. How ever, no matter Modbus or RS-485, the physical layer are the same. It supports multi-drop connection or daisy-chain. that saves a lot of wiring cost from the star topology.

To bring all the data from the remote site to the center, many engineers are using a stand-alone serial to fiber converter and put a chassis media converter in the center to do the conversion.

In the center, since there are many serial fiber converter modules in the chassis, there must be a multiport serial board, or a multiport device server to bring those data back to computer.

Mosa's ICF-1150 and NRack system can meet this requirement.

The detail application you can go to this link to find more information.

3-way Communication for Serial-to-Fiber Media Converters

In general, serial-to-fiber converters on the market today only
provide one serial port and one fiber port for physical layer
media conversion. But as industrial networking applications
increase in complexity, users have started to demand
additional capabilities and features including easy wiring,
system diagnostics, and dual hosts/slaves. This white paper
explains how to use 3-way communication on Moxa’s ICF-1150
series media converters to achieve these various benefits on a
single device.

Let us use the ICF-1150 series media converters to illustrate
how 3-way communication works for serial-to-fiber converters.
Each ICF-1150 is equipped with one fiber port and two serial
ports. The D-sub connector is used for RS-232 communication
and the removable terminal block is used for RS-422 or RS-485
communication. When the ICF-1150 series converter receives
data through one of its ports, it will send the data back out
through the remaining 2 ports. For example, when the
ICF-1150 series receives a command from the remote device
via the fiber port, it will convert the command and transmit it
via the RS-232 port and RS-422/485 port at the same time.

Three-way communication brings the following benefits:
1. Easy wiring
2. Easy system diagnostic
3. Dual hosts/clients, redundant solution, and data logging

Easy Wiring
Compared to traditional serial-to-fiber converters that only
have one serial port and one fiber port, Moxa’s ICF-1150 series
provides 3 ports for data communication. Based on our many
years of experience, we have selected the most common
connectors used in the industry, such as D-sub for RS-232
connections and removable terminal blocks for RS-422/485
connections. Adopting the most commonly used connectors
can save users a great deal of time in field installation and
maintenance.

Easy System Diagnostic
When connecting PLCs or meters to a fiber converter, users
need a clear way to diagnose what is wrong if the send/receive
data are blocked, stopped, or an error occurs. In most cases,
users will change the wiring to see if the failure was caused by
improper wiring. Users may also try using a USB-to-serial
converter to connect the converter to a laptop that can run
diagnostics. After checking the data transmission, users
remove the USB-to-serial converter and reconnect all the
wires. However, none of that can guarantee that the new wiring
is correct.

Three-way communication can solve this problem and fulfill
customer expectations. Let us examine the following 2
scenarios to better understand this concept.

A. Connecting an RS-485 device to fiber converter.
Since the RS-232 port on the fiber converter is still unused, we
can connect the RS-232 port to a laptop and open the COM port
by “Hyper Terminal” to see what data is running. After running
diagnostics and correcting the wiring (if needed), we can
remove the link between the laptop and converter without
affecting any running systems.

Here is part of the white paper, you can download the original file from this link

Moxa Serial Converters for Your Every Need

According to Venture Development Corporation's 2007 Annual Research Report, only 7% of users in the industrial sector currently adopt fiber optics as their primary communication medium. However, that figure is expected to reach approximately 20% in 2011, meaning more and more fiber-optic networks are being constructed.

The reason is simple. Fiber optics offer better performance compared to copper wire transmission thanks to the following characteristics:
• Immunity to electromagnetic interference (EMI)
• Electrical resistance
• No sparks
• Wider bandwidth and faster speed
• Longer transmission distance
Unlike serial and Ethernet ports, optical fiber ports are not a standard feature on most industrial equipment today as most of these machines and devices still rely on traditional RS-232, RS-422 or RS-485 connections. Fiber converters offer an excellent way to connect legacy industrial equipment to a fiber-optic network since no protocol exchanges are required and conversion latency is measured at the microsecond level.

As an expert provider of high-end and high quality communication products, Moxa offers a rich selection of serial-to-fiber converters to meet requirements for a wide range of industrial applications.

TCF-90 series: Entry-level RS-232 serial-to-fiber converter with serial port power
TCF-142 series: Standard serial-to-fiber converter that support wall and DIN-rail mounting
ICF-1150 series: High level fiber converter that can be used in hazardous environments
TRC-190 series: Rackmount chassis for the NRack System™
TCF-142-RM series: RS-232/422/485 to fi ber slide-in modules for the NRack System™
CP-102UF series: Multiport serial board with 2 optical fiber ports eliminates the need for 2 separate converters, saving installation time, space, and cost

For more information: click here.