SeaLevel Ultra-COMM+2/422.PCIe User manual

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© Sealevel Systems, Inc. 7204e Manual | SL9244 11/2022
Ultra-COMM+2/422.PCIe
User Manual | 7204e and 7204eS

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© Sealevel Systems, Inc. 7204e Manual | SL9244 11/2022
Contents
CONTENTS...........................................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................... 3
BEFORE YOU GET STARTED ...............................................................................................................................4
HARDWARE DESCRIPTION ................................................................................................................................. 6
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION ................................................................................................................................. 7
HARDWARE CONFIGURATION..........................................................................................................................11
SOFTWARE INSTALLATION..............................................................................................................................15
HARDWARE INSTALLATION .............................................................................................................................17
HARDWARE REMOVAL......................................................................................................................................24
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS..........................................................................................................................25
APPENDIX A – TROUBLESHOOTING................................................................................................................26
APPENDIX B – HANDLING INSTRUCTIONS.....................................................................................................31
APPENDIX C – ELECTRICAL INTERFACE ........................................................................................................32
APPENDIX D – ASYNCHRONOUS COMMUNICATIONS ..................................................................................33
APPENDIX E – MECHANICAL DRAWING .........................................................................................................34
WARRANTY ........................................................................................................................................................35
................................................................................................................................................................................

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Introduction
The Sealevel Ultra-COMM+2.422.PCIe (Item# 7204e) provides a PCI Express 1.0a compliant interface
adapter with two asynchronous serial ports for industrial automation and control applications. The serial
ports are field selectable for RS-422 or RS-485 and support data rates to 921.6K bps.
RS-422 mode for is designed for long distance device connections up to 4000ft. where noise immunity and
high data integrity are essential. RS-485 mode can capture data from multiple peripherals in an RS485
multi-drop network. Up to 31 unit load RS-485 devices can be connected to each port to automate your data
collection. You can even mix the ports in any of the interface combinations to provide maximum flexibility
to your application.
In RS-485 mode, the transmitter is automatically enabled in hardware, eliminating the need for application
software control. This allows the 7204e to be used with standard serial communications applications and
removes the risk of bus contention and data corruption. The Sealevel SeaCOM software driver and utilities
make installation and operation easy XP, Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8 operating systems.
The 7204e ships with a low profile PC bracket for use in systems with a low profile PCI Express slot. If you
need a standard size PC bracket, order the 7204eS.
Features
•PCI Express two-port serial interface
adapter
•Each port configurable for RS-422 or RS-
485
•High performance 16C950 UART with
128-byte FIFOs
•Each port supports data rates to 921.6K
bps
•Oscillator and clock prescalar support
wide
range of baud rates
•Supports 9-bit protocol framing
•PCI Express 1.0a compliant via X1
connector
•Compatible with all low profile and
standard size PCI Express slots
•Includes 36” cable that terminates to two
DB9M connectors

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Before You Get Started
What’s Included
Depending on the PC bracket ordered, the 7204e is shipped with the following items. If any of these items
are missing or damaged, please contact Sealevel for replacement.
•Ultra-COMM+2.422.PCIe – Two-Port 422/485 Serial Interface
7204e – PCI Express Board with Low Profile PC Bracket
7204eS – PCI Express Board with Standard Height PC Bracket
•CA203 – DB25F to (2) DB9M Cable, 36” in Length
Advisory Conventions
Warning
The highest level of importance used to stress a condition where damage could result to the
product, or the user could suffer serious injury.
Important
The middle level of importance used to highlight information that might not seem obvious or a
situation that could cause the product to fail.
Note
The lowest level of importance used to provide background information, additional tips, or other
non-critical facts that will not affect the use of the product.

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Optional Items
Depending upon your application, you are likely to find one or more of the following items useful with the
7204e. All items can be purchased from our website (www.sealevel.com) by calling our Sales team at +1
864-843-4343.
DB9F to DB9M Extension Cable (Item# CA127)
The CA127 allows users to extend a DB9 cable up to
six feet. The connectors are pinned one-to-one, so the
cable is compatible with any device or cable that has
DB9 connectors.
DB9F to RJ45 Modular Adapter (Item# RJ9S8)
The RJ9S8 is a DB9 female to RJ45 adapter. It can be
configured without tools and is an excellent choice for
using available infrastructure wiring.
Terminal Block DB9 Female to 5 Screw Terminals
(Item # TB34)
The TB34 terminal block adapter offers a simple
solution for connecting RS-422 and RS-485 field
wiring to a serial port. The terminal block is
compatible with 2-wire and 4-wire RS-485 networks
and matches the RS-422/485 pin-out on Sealevel
serial devices with DB9 male connectors.

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Hardware Description
PCI Express Board
The 7204e is a low profile PCI Express 1.0a compliant board via single lane x1 slot. It can be used in any
single- or multi-lane PCI Express slot. It is available in standard height PCI Express as item# 7204eS.
DB25M Board Connector
The board integrates a DB25 male connector for interfacing the two serial ports via the included cable.
DB25M Serial Connectors
The 7204e ships with a two-port cable (Item# CA203) that includes four DB9 male serial connectors. The
pin out for these connectors is detailed in the following Technical Description section.

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Technical Description
Each serial port utilizes a 16C950 UART featuring programmable baud rates, data format, interrupt control
and industry-leading 128-byte transmit and receive FIFOs. This high-performance UART includes 9-bit
framing support and is fully software compatible with legacy 16550 applications. In addition, the 14.7456
oscillator and UART’s flexible clock prescaler supports the widest range of standard and non-standard baud
rates to 921.6K bps. Refer to Appendix C for cable length limitations.
Connector Pin Assignments
Board Connector (DB25 Male)
The 7204e board includes a DB25 male connector for attaching the included cable (Item# CA203). The pin
out for the DB25M connector is shown in the table below.
Port 1 Pin# Port 2 Pin# RS-422/485
1 11 RD –
2 12 CTS –
3 13 RD +
4 14 TD –
5 15 RTS –
6 16 RTS +
7 17 TD +
8 18 CTS +
9 10 GND

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Cable Pin Assignments
The 7204e includes a cable (Item# CA203) with a DB25 female connector terminating to a pair of DB9 male
connectors. The DB25F connector on the cable plugs into the DB25M connector on interface board. The
DB9M connectors are compatible with a variety of serial peripherals. The pin assignments for the supported
electrical interfaces are shown in the tables below.
RS-422 & RS-485 (DB9 Male)
Pin # Signal Name Mode
1 RX + Receive Data Positive Input
2 RX – Receive Data Negative Input
3 TX – Transmit Data Negative Output
4 TX + Transmit Data Positive Output
5 GND Ground
6 RTS + Request to Send Positive Output
7 RTS – Request to Send Negative Output
8 CTS – Clear to Send Negative Input
9 CTS + Clear to Send Positive Input

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Baud Rates and Oscillator Value
The 7204e utilizes a 14.7456MHz oscillator, which is automatically entered by the SeaCOM driver under
Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7 operating systems. The oscillator value can be found in the COM port properties
of Device Manager under the ‘Advanced Tab’.
The high-speed oscillator and the UART’s flexible clock prescaler support a wide range of standard and
non-standard baud rates. You simply need to select the appropriate baud rate in your communications
software and the driver will calculate the closest matching baud rate.
The following table shows common baud rates, and the baud rates you need to select in your application
running on operating systems other than Windows.
For this Data Rate Choose this Data Rate
1200 bps 150 bps
2400 bps 300 bps
4800 bps 600 bps
9600 bps 1200 bps
19.2K bps 2400 bps
38.4K bps 4800 bps
57.6K bps 7200 bps
115.2 K bps 14.4K bps
230.4K bps 28.8K bps
460.8K bps 57.6 K bps
921.6K bps 115.2 K bps

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If your communications package allows the use of baud rate divisors, choose the appropriate
divisor from the following table:
For this Data Rate Choose this Divisor
1200 bps 768
2400 bps 384
4800 bps 192
9600 bps 96
19.2K bps 48
38.4K bps 24
57.6K bps 16
115.2K bps 8
230.4K bps 4
460.8K bps 2
921.6K bps 1

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Hardware Configuration
There are two sets of 7-position dipswitches on the board that are used to set the electrical interface,
termination, and biasing. The dipswitch located at ‘SW1’ is labeled ‘PORT 1’ and configures the first serial
port. The dipswitch located at ‘SW2’ is labeled ‘PORT 2’ and configures the second serial port. The labels
and description of the function for each switch are detailed in the following table.
Dipswitch Settings
Switch Description
M1 Sets the electrical interface mode (with M0)
M0 Sets the electrical interface mode (with M1)
T Adds or removes 120 Ωtermination
PU Adds or removes 1 KΩ pull-up resistor in RS-422/485 mode
PD Adds or removes 1 KΩ pull-down resistor in RS-422/485 mode
L Connects TX– to RX– for RS-485 two-wire operation
L Connects TX+ to RX+ for RS-485 two-wire operation

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The location of the dipswitches is outlined in green in the image below. The default configuration settings
are shown in drawing.

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Electrical Interface Modes
Each port on the 7204e can be individually configured for RS-422 or RS-485 mode. The first two switches
labeled ‘M1’ and ‘M0’ are used to select the electrical interface. To simplify installation and testing the
board is shipped in RS-422 mode. Use the settings in the table below to assist you in configuring the
electrical interface.
M1 M0 Interface
OFF OFF N/A
OFF ON RS-422 [Default]
ON OFF RS-485 ECHO Enabled
ON ON RS-485 No ECHO

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Termination & Biasing Resistors
Typically, each end of the RS-485 bus must have line terminating resistors enabled (RS-422 should
terminate the receive end only). A 120 ohm resistor is across each RS-422/485 input in addition to a 1 KΩ
pull-up and pull-down combination that biases the receiver inputs. Use the switches detailed in the table
below to customize the interface to your specific requirements.
If using the board in an RS-485 two-wire network, enable the two switches labeled ‘L’, which tie the
positive/negative transmit/receive pairs together.
Switch Default Description
T ON Adds 120 Ω termination, OFF to remove
PU ON Adds 1 KΩ pull-up resistor in RS-422/485
Off to remove
PD ON Adds 1 KΩ pull-down resistor in RS-422/485
OFF to remove
L OFF ON to connect TX– to RX– for RS-485 two-wire
L OFF ON to connect TX+ to RX+ for RS-485 two-wire

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Software Installation
Windows Installation
Do not connect the hardware until the software has been fully installed.
Only users running Windows 7 or newer should utilize these instructions for accessing and
installing the appropriate driver via Sealevel’s website. If you are utilizing an operating system
prior to Windows 7, please contact Sealevel by calling 864.843.4343 or emailing
[email protected] to receive access to the proper driver download and installation
instructions.
1. Begin by locating, selecting, and installing the correct software from the Sealevel software
driver database.
2. Type in or select the part number (#7204e) for the adapter from the listing.
3. Select “Download Now” for SeaCOM for Windows.
4. The setup files will automatically detect the operating environment and install the proper
components. Follow the information presented on the screens that follow.
5. A screen may appear with text similar to: “The publisher cannot be determined due to the
problems below: Authenticode signature not found.” Please click the ‘Yes’ button and
proceed with the installation. This declaration simply means that the operating system is
not aware of the driver being loaded. It will not cause any harm to your system.
6. During setup, the user may specify installation directories and other preferred
configurations. This program also adds entries to the system registry that are necessary
for specifying the operating parameters for each driver. An uninstall option is also included
to remove all registry/INI file entries from the system.
7. The software is now installed, and you can proceed with the hardware installation.
To install Sealevel software, you must log in as an administrator or have administrator privileges in
Windows. All Sealevel Systems software drivers have been fully tested by Sealevel. Clicking “OK”
button to continue.
This is a notification that if you are upgrading from a previous driver version, you should remove
the associated Device Manager hardware entries and reinstall the adapter after the installing the
SeaCOM software.

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Upgrading to the Current SeaCOM Driver
1. Download the current driver using the Instructions from the Where to Get Software section
above. Please take note of the destination directory it will save to.
2. Uninstall the currently loaded driver SeaCOM driver found in the Control Panel. Prior to
Windows Vista SeaCOM will be populated in ‘Add/Remove Programs’ list. In Vista and newer
OSs it will be found in the ‘Programs and Features’ list.
3. Navigate to the Device Manager and remove the Sealevel adapter by right clicking on the line
item choosing ‘Uninstall’. Depending on your product, it can be found under either ‘Multiport
Serial adapters’ or ‘Universal Serial Bus controllers’.
4. In the Device Manager under ‘Action’, choose ‘Scan for Hardware changes’. This will prompt
the installation of the adapter and associate it with the newly installed SeaCOM driver.
Linux Installation
You MUST have “root” privileges to install the software and drivers.
The syntax is case sensitive.
SeaCOM for Linux can be downloaded here: https://www.sealevel.com/support/software-seacom-linux/.
It includes the README and the Serial-HOWTO help files (located at seacom/dox/howto). This series of
files both explains typical Linux serial implementations and informs the user about Linux syntax and
preferred practices.
User can use a program such as 7-Zip to extract the tar.gz file.
In addition, the software selectable interface settings can be accessed by referencing
seacom/utilities/7204emode.
Linux Support
The 7204e is supported natively in Linux kernels 2.6.28 and later.
For additional software support, please call Sealevel Systems’ Technical Support, [phone]. Our
technical support is free and available from 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM Eastern Time, Monday through Friday. For
email support contact: [e-mail].

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Hardware Installation
Do not install the PCI Express board until the software has been successfully installed.
The 7204e requires that dipswitches are configured prior to installation. Please see the Hardware
Configuration section of this manual for details.
Once you have installed the SeaCOM software and configured the dipswitches on the board, install the
board into an available PCI Express slot and boot the computer. The Found New Hardware wizard will
appear. The drivers that were installed during the software installation process will automatically be used
to configure the adapter.
The following instructions are applicable to the Windows 7 operating system and may vary depending on
your version of Windows.
1. After the software installation is complete, install the 7204e into an available PCI Express slot and
boot the computer.
2. A ‘Found New Hardware’ alert will appear above the system tray.
3. If the alert bubble is clicked, the following window will appear.

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4. When the ‘Found New Hardware’ alert informs you that your hardware is installed and ready to use,
you can proceed with verifying the installation to check functionality if necessary.
Verifying Installation
To confirm that the SeaCOM card has been successfully installed and recognized by your operating system,
look in the Windows Device Manager.
To access Device Manager, follow the steps below:
1. Right click on ‘My Computer’ icon on your desktop or in the Start menu.
2. Click ‘Manage’ in the fly out menu to launch the ‘Computer Management’ console window.
3. In the left pane under ‘System Tools’, click ‘Device Manager’.
4. In right pane near the bottom, expand the ‘Multi-Port Serial Adapters’ section by clicking the arrow
‘>’ symbol. This shows the parent device is installed correctly.
5. You should see the card assignment listed as ‘Ultra-COMM+2.422.PCIe: PCI 2 Port RS-422/485
(7204e)’.
6. Expand the ‘Ports (COM & LPT)’ section by clicking the arrow ‘>’ symbol. This shows that all the
ports have installed correctly.
7. There should now be two ports labeled ‘ULTRA 485+2.PCIe: PCI 2 Port RS-422/485 (7204e) (Port
X) (COMYY)’ where X is the port number on the card, and YY is the COM number the OS has
assigned to the ports. The COM numbers can be reassigned at any time.

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The 7204e is now ready for use.

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Uninstall & Upgrade Instructions
The SeaCOM software program adds entries to the system registry that are necessary for specifying the
operating parameters for your device. To completely remove the hardware and associated software, follow
the steps in the order they appear.
To upgrade to the latest version of SeaCOM, follow the instructions to uninstall the hardware and software,
followed by the upgrade instructions.
Start with the hardware installed in a PCI Express slot. Do not remove until instructed to do so.
There are two methods for removing the software references from the Windows OS: Device Manager and
Control Panel. Each method is described below.
Remove Hardware Using Device Manager
To access Device Manager, follow the steps below:
1. Right click on ‘My Computer’ icon on your desktop or in the Start menu.
2. Click ‘Manage’ in the fly out menu to launch the ‘Computer Management’ console window.
3. In the left pane under ‘System Tools’, click ‘Device Manager’.
4. In right pane near the bottom, expand the ‘Multi-port serial adapters’ section by clicking the
arrow ‘>’ symbol.
5. Locate the 7204e device in the listing.