This thread is an offshoot from a thread on Photonlexicon where we'd been discussing the forthcoming FB4 and the protocol over cat5.
Bill responded with the following to one of my questions:
Ultimately, I want to know if there is a spare pair in the FB4 implementation to carry my estop signal.
I currently run my estop over pins 4/17 of the ILDA cable, and each projector has relays connected to the safety board and also onto the pass through connector, so I can have a single estop work effectively on a chain of projectors. I have 7 projectors with this configuration and I'm not looking to change it.
If I can run my estop over spare pair on the cat5 I can break it out at the stage and build an ILDA breakout box for each DAC output, which has a separate relay on each output, controlled by the single input from the cat5.
As I stated in the thread on PL, I'm only really interested in FB4 for cat5 at all if I can utilize the cat5 for estop. I don't really want to swap multiple ILDa runs for multiple cat5 runs.
I've looked at the Startech USB extenders but I believe they use their own proprietary protocol which leaves no pair spare.
Bill responded with the following to one of my questions:
Hi Norty,
FB4 uses network cable, and broader TCP/IP for communications. What I meant by "protocol" was just something that sits on top of TCP/IP and allows us to get the level of smoothness we get. However, with that having been said (that is uses network cable), I will also say that we use network cable in a different way compared to how it is classically used. You can use FB4 with regular old network cables connected to your PC, or you can "do something else" (like a twist) and get even further functionality from FB4 and network cables.
Bottom line -- you will get more functionality from an FB4 and network cables than was classically and historically available. So -- same old network cables, but more functionality.
ESTOP is indeed an important requirement. I'd recommend you bring this discussion to the Networking section of the Pangolin forum, where I'll have folks like Hugo comment on how he does it, since he's been using network cables along with our QM2000.NET and ESTOP for the past ten years.
Ultimately, I want to know if there is a spare pair in the FB4 implementation to carry my estop signal.
I currently run my estop over pins 4/17 of the ILDA cable, and each projector has relays connected to the safety board and also onto the pass through connector, so I can have a single estop work effectively on a chain of projectors. I have 7 projectors with this configuration and I'm not looking to change it.
If I can run my estop over spare pair on the cat5 I can break it out at the stage and build an ILDA breakout box for each DAC output, which has a separate relay on each output, controlled by the single input from the cat5.
As I stated in the thread on PL, I'm only really interested in FB4 for cat5 at all if I can utilize the cat5 for estop. I don't really want to swap multiple ILDa runs for multiple cat5 runs.
I've looked at the Startech USB extenders but I believe they use their own proprietary protocol which leaves no pair spare.