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Sometimes you just need more serial ports! Between modbus, SCPI, ASCII, various baud rates and the like, sometimes you just can't combine different RS232 peripherals and need more physical ports. Fear no more, I've done all of the heavy lifting for you! I've designed a circuit board and modified the code for this library to enable to usage of another P1AM-Serial module expanding the amount of ports from 2 to 4!
Example: My machine uses RS232 for the following things:
- Modbus for the CM5-T7W HMI.
- Proprietary communication method similar to modbus for a particular sensor
- SCPI for a multimeter
- Two barcode scanners. (these are combined, one uses a prefix "," and the other a "/t" to differentiate between the two.
The SCPI sends periodic commands to the multimeter. If the barcode scanners are on the same serial port as the multimeter, they don't "understand" the multimeter's commands and they send back jibberish simultaneously, and the multimeter's message is lost. Therefore, they cannot be combined on the same port as the multimeter. As you can see, I need at least 3 different RS232 serial ports. This is just my personal case of why I need more serial ports.
The adapter board files are in this repository under "hardware." Within that folder, there are DXF board outlines, GERBER files, Eagle files, and Fusion360 files. You can also use these files as a proper outline to make your own custom board for the proto module. PCBs can be ordered very cheaply from places like JLCpcb or PCBWay for less than $20. Obviously through-hole pin headers couldn't be use as the pins connections needed to be rearranged for the secondary module. So "splayed leg" 2.54mm pitch pin headers were used instead. The "splayed leg" male pin headers are available for purchase from Digikey, manufacturer part # M20-8771042, Digikey part # 952-3263-ND. The female pin headers are just your normal headers with the pins splayed out manually with a pair of pliers. Make sure the female headers go on the side of the PCB with the text. It only takes a minute or two to do.
The power pins are a bit longer than the rest, so use angle cutters to trim the shroud and the pins down to the same height as the other pins.
This code was forked from FACTS Engineering, LLC.
MIT License
Copyright (c) 2019 FACTS Engineering, LLC
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