panic mode
Member
lookup "rs232 optical isolation" using google for example.
we have done many applications that used PCs with multi port serial cards (usually eight port cards making for total of ten ports per pc). we have found out that using non-isolated cards works sometimes but often means asking for trouble. (chance of something going wrong is proportional to number of connected ports).
one part of the issue is that 99% of the rs232 cards are not isolated. bigger problem is that most of those claiming to be isolated are not truly isolated, they usually only isolate two or four signals of the port (each port has 8 signals, which means that most handshake signals not isolated).
we have done many applications that used PCs with multi port serial cards (usually eight port cards making for total of ten ports per pc). we have found out that using non-isolated cards works sometimes but often means asking for trouble. (chance of something going wrong is proportional to number of connected ports).
one part of the issue is that 99% of the rs232 cards are not isolated. bigger problem is that most of those claiming to be isolated are not truly isolated, they usually only isolate two or four signals of the port (each port has 8 signals, which means that most handshake signals not isolated).