Very confused

[jmelvin]

I think I'm over my head w/ the Ren-C. I completely understand the Grinch and 595. I guess I'm confused with the rs232 and rs485. Can someone shed a little light on this for me?

[Wayne J]

Can you be more specific? What is it that has you confused?

[jmelvin]

Well my PC that I am using has a serial port. Is it rs232 or 485, or do I chose what I want it to be via a setting in CMOS like I do for the parallel port. Which is better to use? I am going to be using the ren-c dimmer with one of my grinch boards. I wanted to build the transformer board for ZC and noticed that one has a 232 to 485 converter and one does not.

[P. Short]

PC serial ports are RS-232 only (unless maybe you buy a special card for RS485 or other serial protocols).

As for Ren-C and the Renard designs, all of the links between boards are already RS485. The only link in question is between the PC and the first controller. The only reason to use RS485 there is if the distance from the PC to the first controller is more than 100 feet, or so. In that case, you would want a RS232-RS485 converter. You could buy one from ebay or wherever, or build one using a Wayne transformer board populated to do the conversion.

--

Phil

[Wayne J]

The computer's serial port puts out RS232. The Ren-T will accept RS232 or RS485, Which one you choose is up to your configuration. Is your controler going to be close the the PC (within a 100')? If so, then RS232 is fine. If your controller will be a good distance from the PC then RS485 is the way to go. Whichever one you choose, will be setup with which parts you install. No need to mess with settings of the PC, although you may need to tweak the COM port settings.

[jmelvin]

Thats what I needed to know. PC--ren--grinch all within a few feet of each other. Do I need a db9 to rj45 or just let the transformer board do it?

[P. Short]

Let the transformer board to the connector conversion.

--

Phil

[jmelvin]

Thank you all greatly! Now let the dimming begin.