BCS I/O Expansion Card

Expand the capabilities of your BCS.
cyberbackpacker
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Re: BCS I/O Expansion Card

Post by cyberbackpacker »

I would definitely be in for one these... for me, 4 additional temperature inputs would be extremely useful.
Backyard Brewer
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Re: BCS I/O Expansion Card

Post by Backyard Brewer »

cyberbackpacker wrote:I would definitely be in for one these... for me, 4 additional temperature inputs would be extremely useful.
I'm not operational yet, but I could see the need for more temp inputs.
clearwaterbrewer
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Re: BCS I/O Expansion Card

Post by clearwaterbrewer »

I would definitely get a 4in/4out (8flex i/o even better) analog expansion card.. 4-20mA preferably

I think this would be the best way to input from a PID or remote digital temp transducer or output to a PID.


also, a expansion card to remotely drive temperature displays (say 1-4 3.5 digit LED/LCD units of some sort) would be valuable in my opinion.

-mike
bruin_ale
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Re: BCS I/O Expansion Card

Post by bruin_ale »

I'm curious as to the limitations of the current expansion card (digi16).
I seem to recall reading somewhere that only one process can use these I/O. Is that right, or can all processes sample and control the I/O for the card?
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ECC
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Re: BCS I/O Expansion Card

Post by ECC »

Yes, you are correct. The expansion card outputs can only be controlled by one active process at a time. There's one enable for all of the outputs which asserts them all on/off. So if you had multiple processes trying to control the same expansion card, there would be contention. However expansion card Inputs can be ready by any process.

If you need more outputs separately controllable from different processes, you could utilize multiple expansion cards (upto 4). Another option is the BCS-462 which has separate enables for each output, allowing separate process control.
clearwaterbrewer
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Re: BCS I/O Expansion Card

Post by clearwaterbrewer »

4-20mA input would let me hook up this new toy I got on eBay for $50, a Weiss dvbmt4:
http://www.weissinstruments.com/digital ... tters.html
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