HC-8 RS-485 Com support

[bsnut]

Jon,
You stated this back in the HC-8 topic and have one more question for you.

What I can tell you about the RS-485 circuitry is that I changed it from half-duplex only (2-wire) to a circuit that supports full-duplex (4-wire) as well.

I have entered into the Parallax Spinneret design contest and I am designing an I/O board which I will like to use the HC-8 in the  future for it's ability to use the RS-485 coms and for it's other uses. Will the RS-485 setup you plan to use, will it support half-duplex (2-wire)? Will it have RJ45 jacks and what is the pin out on the RJ45 jacks.

I understand that you are a busy working on getting the HC-8 out on the market for us to us in our projects and can't wait to see your handy work.    

[JonnyMac]

will it support half-duplex (2-wire)?

Yes, just wire the TX and RX output lines together and make sure you use a half-duplex friendly protocol (i.e., round robin).  We've done this on the RS-485 adapter many times and it works just fine.  On your end you could use a half-duplex chip.  In fact, I have suggested to Parallax and am working on (personal project) and RS-485 board for the Spinneret.  If you're doing the same thing then I'll wait for yours.

Will it have RJ45 jacks and what is the pin out on the RJ45 jacks.

No, it uses a standard terminal block.

[bsnut]

Thanks for your reply Jon. This helps me out and simplifys the whole process for me.
 

In fact, I have suggested to Parallax and am working on (personal project) and RS-485 board for the Spinneret.  If you're doing the same thing then I'll wait for yours.

My first goal of this Spinneret contest was to use all HC-8 to pass data the to the Spinneret. But, the HC-8 has 8 inputs and I need 9 inputs for the Bilge Alarm panel and was going to use 2 more to handle the rest of the inputs. So, I designed this board to interface with 20 I/O and the HC-8 on the GG USB board. I would like to do one more I/O, so I can use the last pin on the last of the  three ULN2003. But, I need 2 I/O Pins for serial to the Spinneret and 2 I/O Pins for serial and direction control to the LTC1485.

If you would like, I can provide you a drawing of what I am planning to do. So, you can make your decision.

P.S. Sorry for the change in this post. I am currently at work and didn't get a chance finish my post properly.