Gilderfluke&Co Mp3-50 Audio & Show Controllers - Manual (Page 22)

quickly chew up a lot of serial ports! Most of our other prod-
ucts use RS-422 serial ports. Along with being able to run
your wires up to a mile (RS-232 is limited to about 50 feet if
the wind is blowing in the right direction), RS-422 allows lots
of devices to be attached to the same serial port at the
same time.
Because it is not uncommon to access and control a
large number of repeaters on the same serial line, the DMX-
512/MIDI input can be selected to turn the DMX-512/MIDI
port into a multidrop Serial network. This mode parallels the
data received on the DMX-512/MIDI input pins with the seri-
al data received on the regular RS-232 serial port. The serial
data is still output from the Mp3-50/8 or Mp3-50/40 still
comes ONLY through the RS-232 serial port on the front to
the unit.
This serial port can be used to select and play shows,
check the status of a card, or AutoDownload shows from
any point on the network. Since it is 100% compatible with
the RS-422 serial ports on all other Gilderfluke & Company
equipment, a multidrop network can consist of up to 256
Mp3-50/8 or Mp3-50/40 and any other Gilderfluke & Com-
pany devices. The only requirement is that they all be set to
unique addresses.
Since RS-422 is probably the most widely used of indus-
trial data networks, a myriad of other pieces of equipment
are available which will also work with the Net Serial mode.
These allow you to do tricks like controlling the Mp3-50/8 or
Mp3-50/40 through a wireless modem using off-the-shelf
hardware.
A typical application is to use a touch screen operator
interface to access and play shows. These generally use a
user definable graphical interface. You pretty much draw a
button, and then attach a string to it. When this on-screen
button is pushed, this string is sent out to control the down-
stream equipment.
d) IR Mode: The Optoisolated/RS-422 switch on the bottom of
the Mp3-50 can be in either position, but RS-422 is pre-
ferred. This turns on a special serial port mode on the Mp3-
50/8 or Mp3-50/40 which allows it to be used with our In-
fraRed Transmitters and Receivers. The IR Remote mode is
typically used to trigger an animation or sound system
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