Trying to be smart like you

[cruizer]

Hi guys,
So, for this year I am building all my own boards, and hoping to ramp up from 16 channels to something more than 100. Last year was a bunch of stuff put together to create just 16 channels, and I used 2 parallel ports.

Now I have new stuff to build. I have a boatlaod of Sean's SSR's V2.4, I am receiving 5 Grinch boards (due to the amount of Allegro chips I had to buy to meet a minimum order), I am also getting 5 Ren-C's and 1 Ren-T.
I may solder up the extra boards and sell them as kits if I have time.

The connection as follows will be what I am going to use:

PC ---> Ren-T ------> Ren-C ---> Grinch
...............|
...............v
.............Ren-C ---->Grinch

(ignore the dots, if I use spaces is comes out all wrong)

What I understand:
The Ren-T provides Zero Cross to the Ren-C's. The Ren-C's will get their power from the Grinch's. Both the In and Out cables from the Grinch's will connect to the corresponding In and Out jacks on the Rec-C. These cables must be 6" or less in length. One Ren-C per Grinch. The Ren-C's can be daisey chained. One Ren-T for the lot of Ren-C's (I know there is a specific, but I will never meet the requirement for more then one Ren-T).

What I think I understand:
The Ren-T will provide ZC to the Rec-C via Cat5 to the RS In of the Ren-C. Daisy chaining the Ren-C's with the RS jacks will provide the ZC automatically through the subsiquent Cat5. If I am bringing power in from the RS jack, I do not need to install R1, and since I will probably using a PicKit Programmer, I should install JP6.

What I do not understand:
Which case to do for making the transformer. I do not understand what RS485 is or why/if I need to convert it, so I do not know which case is for my application.

Any help in correcting what I think I know, know, or helping understand what I don't know would be great!

[P. Short]

The distance between the Ren-T and the first Ren-C (or other Renard) is what determines if you need to build the Ren-T for RS485, or not. If the distance from the Ren-T to the first Ren-C is big (over 100 ft, perhaps) or it is electrically noisy, then you should build the Ren-T with the RS485 option. If the distance is small and not very noisy, then the RS232 option should suffice.

--

Phil

[cruizer]

Only the distance to the first one, not the distance to any one thereafter?

[P. Short]

Right. The output from any of the Renard boards is RS485. The only place where RS232 could come into play is the input to the first Renard in the daisy-chain.

--

Phil

[cruizer]

So therefore if I understand the description correctly, I would conclude I need to go with Case 3 then?

[P. Short]

You haven't provided enough information to say.

--

Phil

[cruizer]

Oh, OK. What other information is needed?

[P. Short]

How far from the PC to the first controller, and is a noisy or a benign environment?

--

Phil

[cruizer]

OH! Duh.

I don't really know offhand, this will be my first year in this house, but I am going to say it's going to be less than 100' to the first controller.

Please explain what you mean by a noisy or benign. I can assume you mean actuall noise, like yelling people, kids, dogs...But I have a feeling that is not it.

[P. Short]

I meant electrically noisy. For example, running the cable near appliances with electrical motors (such as air compressors, washing machines and driers, woodworking or metalworking tools, etc) or running the data cable near the power cables for these types of appliances or tools.

Phil

[cruizer]

More than likely, yes, it will be noisey.
Nothing is set up yet, like I said new house, and I don't know where everything is going at the moment. I just recently installed electrical outlets for the outside on the front of the house. Currently my idea is adding a dedicated network port to one of the outlet ports. Therefore the network wire would be running next to the power wire for the Christmas lights.

This network port will go straight from the computer to the outdoor network plug, then to the first Ren-C & Controller. This way I don't have to run wires through the windows or anything. I don't anticipate the total run bing more than 100', but I do anticipate it running next to a 120v line.

If this idea won't work, let me know, nothing is set in stone yet.

So noisey, yes; 100' probably not.