SeaLevel ULTRA COMM+2i.PCIe User manual

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© Sealevel Systems, Inc. 7203e Manual | SL9238 10/2022
ULTRA COMM+2i.PCIe
User Manual | 7203e

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© Sealevel Systems, Inc. 7203e Manual | SL9238 10/2022
Contents
CONTENTS...........................................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................... 3
BEFORE YOU GET STARTED ...............................................................................................................................4
CARD SETUP ........................................................................................................................................................7
INSTALLATION ..................................................................................................................................................10
HARDWARE INSTALLATION .............................................................................................................................11
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION ...............................................................................................................................12
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS..........................................................................................................................13
APPENDIX A – TROUBLESHOOTING................................................................................................................14
APPENDIX B – SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS..........................................................................................................17
APPENDIX C – ELECTRICAL INTERFACE ........................................................................................................18
APPENDIX D – ASYNCHRONOUS COMMUNICATIONS ..................................................................................19
APPENDIX E – GROUND LOOP PHENOMENON ..............................................................................................20
APPENDIX F – MECHANICAL DRAWING .........................................................................................................21
APPENDIX G – COMPLIANCE NOTICES ..........................................................................................................22
WARRANTY ........................................................................................................................................................23

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© Sealevel Systems, Inc. 7203e Manual | SL9238 10/2022
Introduction
Overview
The Sealevel Systems UltraCOMM+2i.PCIe is a two channel isolated PCIe Bus serial I/O adapter for the PC
and compatibles. Utilizing the PLX OXPCIE952 with its industry leading16C950 based 128 byte FIFOs, it
provides two field selectable RS232/422/485 serial ports supporting data rates up to 460.8K bps (RS-
422/485).
Configure both ports as RS232 for standard serial COM: port requirements. Choose the RS-422 mode for
long distance device connections up to 4000ft. where noise immunity and high data integrity are essential.
Select RS-485 and capture data from multiple peripherals in a RS485 multidrop network. Up to 31 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. Optional Terminal Block
adapters are available to simplify field-wiring connections.
In both RS-232 and RS-422 modes, the card works seamlessly with the standard operating system serial
driver. In RS-485 mode, our special auto-enable feature allows the RS485 ports to be viewed by the
operating system as a COM: port. This allows the standard COM: driver to be utilized for RS485
communications. Our on-board hardware automatically handles the RS-485 driver enable.
The UltraCOMM+2i.PCIe will operate on x1, x4, x8 or x16 PCIe bus slots.
Features
•Each port individually configurable for RS-232, RS-422, or RS-485
•Isolation provides protection against transients and ground loops
oOptically isolated serial ports
oGalvanically isolated power to the transceiver
•16C950 based buffered UARTs with 128-byte FIFOs
•Data rates to 460.8K bps
•Automatic RS-485 enable/disable
•The PCIE adapter includes two DB9M connectors
Factory Default Settings
The UltraCOMM+2i.PCIe factory default settings are as follows:
Port # Electrical Specification
Port 1 RS-422
Port 2 RS-422
To install the UltraCOMM+2i.PCIe using factory default settings, refer to the Installation section of the
manual.

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© Sealevel Systems, Inc. 7203e Manual | SL9238 10/2022
Before You Get Started
What’s Included
The UltraCOMM+2i.PCIe is shipped with the following items. If any of these items are missing or
damaged, please contact Sealevel for replacement.
•UltraCOMM+2i.PCIe Isolated Serial Interface
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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© Sealevel Systems, Inc. 7203e Manual | SL9238 10/2022
Optional Items
Depending upon your application, you are likely to find one or more of the following items useful with the
7203e. All items can be purchased from our website (www.sealevel.com)by calling our sales team at (864)
843-4343.
DB9 Female to DB9 Male Extension Cable, 72 inch Length (Item# CA127)
The CA127 is a standard DB9F to DB9M serial extension cable.
Extend a DB9 cable or locate a piece of hardware where it is
needed with this six foot (72) cable. The connectors are pinned
one-to-one, so the cable is compatible with any device or cable
with D
B9 connectors. The cable is fully shielded against
interference and the connectors are molded to provide strain
relief. Dual metal thumbscrews secure the cable connections
and prevent accidental disconnection.
9 Female to DB25 Male Standard RS-232 Modem Cable, 72 inch Length (Item# CA177)
The CA177 is a standard AT-style RS-232 modem cable with a
DB9 female connector on one end and a DB25 male connector
on the other end. Simply connect the DB-9F connector to the
DB9 serial port on your computer or host, and then connect the
DB-25M connector to your RS-
232 serial modem or other
compatible RS-232 serial device. The six foot cable is fully
shielded with dual thumbscrews at each connector. The
molded connectors integrate strain relief to prevent damage to
the cable or connectors. All DB9 modem control signals are
implemented, and the cable is pinned to EIA-232 standards.
DB9 Female to DB9 Female, 72 inchLength - RS-422 207M SMPTE Cable (Item# CA190)
The CA190 connects any Sealevel DB9 RS-422 device to a Sony
(or compatible) 207M (SMPTE) 9 Pin connector.

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© Sealevel Systems, Inc. 7203e Manual | SL9238 10/2022
DB9 Female (RS-422) to DB25 Male (RS-530) Cable, 10 inch Length (Item# CA176)
DB9 Female (RS-422) to DB25 Male (RS-530) Cable, 10 inch
Length. Convert any Sealevel RS-422 DB9 Male Async Adapter
to an RS-530 DB25 Male pinout. Useful in situations where RS-
530 cabling exists, and a multiport Sealevel RS-422 adapter is
to be used.
Terminal Blocks
DB9 Female to 9 Screw Terminal Block (Item# TB05)
The TB05 terminal block breaks out a DB9 connector to 9 screw
terminals to simplify field wiring of serial connections. It is ideal
for RS-422 and RS-485 networks, yet it will work with any DB9
serial connection, including RS-232. The TB05 includes holes
for board or panel mounting. The TB05 is designed to connect
directly to Sealevel DB9 serial cards or any cable with a DB9M
connector.
al DB9 Female to 18 Screw Terminal Block (Item# TB06)
The TB05 terminal block breaks out a DB9 connector to 9 screw
terminals to simplify field wiring of serial connections. It is ideal
for RS-422 and RS-485 networks, yet it will work with any DB9
serial connection, including RS-232. The TB05 includes holes
for board or panel mounting. The TB05 is designed to connect
directly to Sealevel DB9 serial cards or any cable with a DB9M
connector.
DB9 Female to 5 Screw Terminal Block (RS-422/485) (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. A pair of
thumbscrews secures the adapter to the serial port and
prevents accidental disconnection. The TB34 is compact and
allows multiple adapters to be used on multi-port serial devices,
such as Sealevel USB serial adapters, Ethernet serial servers
and other Sealevel serial devices with two or more ports.

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© Sealevel Systems, Inc. 7203e Manual | SL9238 10/2022
Card Setup
Address and IRQ Selection
The UltraCOMM+2i.PCIe is automatically assigned I/O addresses and IRQs by your motherboard BIOS or
by a ‘Plug-n-Play’ Operating System. Adding or removing other hardware or moving the adapter to another
slot may change the assignment of I/O addresses and IRQs.
Clock Modes
The Ultra COMM+4.PCIe derives a 62.5MHz clock from the PCI express link which is divided by an 8 bit
clock prescalar and a 16 bit clock divisor to provide a wide range of possible baud rates. Note that there
are many combinations that can give the same result (e.g. Prescalar=1 and Divisor = 8, Prescalar =2 and
Divisor = 4, or Prescalar=8 and Divisor = 1). As long as the calculated data rate is within +/- 2% you should
communicate fine.
Baud Rates
The following table shows some common data rates and the rates you should choose to achieve them
when using the ULTRA COMM+4.PCIe.
For This Data Rate Clock Prescalar Choose This Divisor DLM:DLL
1200 bps 3.625 898
2400 bps 3.625 449
4800 bps 1.875 434
9600 bps 1.875 217
19.2K bps 1.375 148
38.4K bps 1.375 74
57.6K bps 22.625 3
115.2K bps 1 34
230.4K bps 1 17
460.8K bps 2.125 4
921.6K bps 2.125 2

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© Sealevel Systems, Inc. 7203e Manual | SL9238 10/2022
Electrical Interface Selection
Each port on the UltraCOMM+2i.PCIe has the ability to be used as RS-232, RS-422 or RS-485. This is
selectable via two DIP-switches, SW1 & SW2. Please use the following examples to configure your adapter.
Line Termination
Typically, each end of the RS-485 bus must have line-terminating resistors (RS-422 terminates at the receive
end only). A 120-ohm resistor is across each RS-422/485 input in addition to a 1K-ohm pull-up/pull-down
combination that biases the receiver inputs. Switches SW1 and SW2 allow the user to customize this
interface to their specific requirements. Each switch position corresponds to a specific portion of the
interface. If multiple UltraCOMM+2i.PCIe adapters are configured in a RS-485 network, only the boards on
each end should have jumpers T, P & P ON. Refer to the following table for each position’s operation:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
ON
OFF
8910
1 2 3 T P P L L E
RS-232
1234567
ON
OFF
8910
1 2 3 T P P L L E
RS-422
1234567
ON
OFF
8910
1 2 3 T P P L L E
4-Wire
RS-485
W/Echo
1234567
ON
OFF
8910
1 2 3 T P P L L E
2-Wire
RS-485
W/Echo
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
ON
OFF
8 9 10
1 2 3 T P P L L E
2-Wire
RS-485
NO Echo

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© Sealevel Systems, Inc. 7203e Manual | SL9238 10/2022
Name Function
T Adds or removes the 120 ohm termination.
PU Adds or removes the 1K ohm pull-down resistor in the RS-422/RS-
485 receiver circuit (Receive data only).
PD Adds or removes the 1K ohm pull-up resistor in the RS-422/RS-
485 receiver circuit (Receive data only).
L Connects the TX+ to RX+ for RS-485 two wire operation.
L Connects the TX- to RX- for RS-485 two wire operation.
RS-485 Enable Modes
RS-485 is ideal for multi-drop or network environments. RS-485 requires a tri-state driver that will allow the
electrical presence of the driver to be removed from the line. The driver is in a tri-state or high impedance
condition when this occurs. Only one driver may be active at a time and the other driver(s) must be tri-
stated. The output modem control signal Request To Send (RTS) is typically used to control the state of the
driver. Some communication software packages refer to RS-485 as RTS enable or RTS block mode transfer.
One of the features of the 7203e is the ability to effectively use the UltraCOMM+2i.PCIe in an RS-485
application with existing (i.e., standard RS-232) application software.
Jumpers J3 and J4 are used to control the RS-485 mode functions for the driver circuit. Placing a .100” 2
position shunt on pins 1 and 2 allows the RTS modem control signal to enable the RS-485 interface and
provides backward compatibility with existing software products. Placing a .100” 2 position shunt (jumper)
on pins 2 and 3 selects the ‘Auto’ enable feature. The Auto enable feature automatically enables/disables
the RS-485 interface.
The RS-485 ‘Echo’ is the result of connecting the receiver inputs to the transmitter outputs. Every time a
character is transmitted; it is also received. This can be beneficial if the software can handle echoing (i.e.
using received characters to throttle the transmitter) or it can confuse the system if the software does not.
Position 9 of SW1 and SW2 is used to control the RS-485 enable/disable functions for the receiver circuit.
To select the ‘No Echo’ mode place switch position 9 to the ‘On’ position.

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© Sealevel Systems, Inc. 7203e Manual | SL9238 10/2022
Installation
Software Installation
Windows Installation
Do not install 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 (#7203e) 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.
8. Refer to the Physical Installation section to connect and install your adapter.
All Sealevel Systems software drivers have been fully tested by Sealevel. Clicking ‘OK’ will not
harm your system.
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.