Modbus, Serial Ports and Mailroom Theft
Dear Friend & Subscriber,
Man I tell ya, anything that's portable, or wireless, or runs longer on a tank of petrol, or helps you win a stupid lawsuit is popular right now. Just read about a company in Israel that's got a squeezable fuel cell that recharges your iPod. Some guys at the University of Minnesota have determined that 18kg of Boron and 45 litres of water make a fuel cell with almost as much horsepower as the same amount of petrol.
Oh yeah, and a guy in Oregon is suing Michael Jordan and Nike for $416 million each, because... Michael Jordan looks like him. This unfortunate coincidence has caused him much "pain and suffering." (Did I mention this man regularly wears Air Jordans and plays a mean game of basketball?)
Here at B&B Electronics the pace is almost as feverish as the Federal Frivolous Lawsuit Department, the weather's HOT here in northern Illinois, and you know what else is hot?
Serial Ports. Reviving old equipment, making the old new again. People just can't get enough of this. And it keeps getting new twists.
Modbus has been around for what, about 30 years now? It's so old you can hear its bones creak. But people use it for a reason: It's streamlined, it's got the right stuff for I/O and process data, and it's uncomplicated. Now we stick it on top of TCP/IP at layer 7 with easy to configure Serial Servers and the data flows like water:
http://www.bb-europe.com/product_family.asp?FamilyId=275
We took our incredibly popular industrial line of RS-232/422/485 Serial Converters and raised the bar again. These new converters feature triple isolation. Not only are the data ports isolated from each other, but the power supply is fully isolated as well. And that same power supply has been enhanced to allow operation from 10V all the way up to 48V. It seems that more and more installations have a 48VDC rail, so now you can take advantage of that power rail and eliminate a power supply. Oh, did I mention the removable terminal blocks?
Here you can compare the existing industrial units and the new premium models (look for the little "New" icons):
RS-232 to RS-485 Converter
http://www.bb-europe.com/product_family.asp?FamilyId=302
RS-232 Isolator, RS-485 Isolator
http://www.bb-europe.com/product_family.asp?FamilyId=12
RS-232/422/485 to Fibre Optic Converter
http://www.bb-europe.com/product_family.asp?familyid=103
Sometimes Low-Tech is So Seductive....
Everybody knows about VOIP and Vonage and all that kind of stuff for making cheap phone calls. I admit that I'm a cheapskate and I was pretty enthusiastic the day I cut free of the phone company. But cheap always comes with hidden costs (and VOIP is no exception, at least at my house). But I do have a newfound appreciation for the rock-solid reliability of traditional landlines. They just plain work.
Serial Ports fit the same philosophy as a good ol'fashioned landline. A serial port isn't exactly Wonderware, but it's awfully hard to screw up. People didn't fully appreciate the trusty serial port until in began to disappear from their PC's and laptops leaving them with a communications conundrum.
But this letter is about solutions, not problems. Fortunately B&B Electronics has many solutions to the vanishing serial port dilemma.
USB to serial. Newly redesigned to be smaller and easier to use than ever, this line of isolated and non-isolated USB to RS-232, 422 and 485 converters is just the ticket for field-service and instrumentation connectivity.
http://www.bb-europe.com/product_family.asp?FamilyId=30
http://www.bb-europe.com/product_multi_family.asp?MultiFamilyId=39
Ethernet to serial. Ethernet's everywhere, and it's easy to connect your serial equipment to the LAN using the Vlinx serial servers. Available in commercial and industrial versions.
http://www.bb-europe.com/product_family.asp?FamilyId=120
http://www.bb-europe.com/product_family.asp?familyid=2
The Dark Spectre of Mailroom Theft
Every time we send out our new catalogue, police reports get filed over missing issues. Somebody's always layin' their grimy hands on your stuff, you know? Not only does our phone ring off the hook with new customers and tech calls on new products. People call us asking for a replacement copy of their B&B Electronics catalogue. One of these days we're just going to put the catalogue on a milk carton and post a reward.
Meanwhile, our new Catalogue "Automation and Communications Solutions" is being printed as I type. To be sure you get your own copy, request it here and guard it well:
http://www.bb-europe.com/catalog_request.asp
Ladies and Gentlemen, I'll have you know that we at B&B Electronics take Mailroom Theft very, very seriously. Mailroom Theft is punishable by fine and possible imprisonment (or at least a public caning).
So if your catalogue has been stolen, you are instructed to call and report the incident immediately. After you have notified the authorities, call our office at 353.91.792444 to request your replacement copy.
Dedicated To Mailroom Safety,
Mike Fahrion
support@bb-europe.com
353.91.792444
|
