Roku Brightsign Serial Interface Board

Roku Brightsign Serial Interface

All Brightsign Players, Uses the Serial Port for I/O

8 Inputs & 8 Outputs

ROKU_SER (SERIAL) BOARD

(Roku_HD_8x8 Board)

Features:

Small footprint (3.0 x 3.0 inches)
8 Output Drivers for Lamps or Relays (.5 amperes each driver)
Terminal blocks for all I/O connections
Modes of operation selectable on board
6, 12V or 24VDC operation (requires external power supply)
on board LED's to indicate Roku Power and Processor running.
Serial Setup: 19200 baud, N,8,1 (standard RS232 communication)

The modes of operations are as follows as selected by jumper on the options header:

Note: 03/16/2011 Baud changed from 9600 to 19200 and Rev 2.0 Firmware This applies to all product shipped after this date (03/16/2011).

Rev2 Firmware:

1. Activation of inputs 0-7 Sends out Ascii '0', '1', '2', '3', '4', '5', '6' ,'7' followed by <CR> (Carriage Return), because the BrightSign is looking for 'Strings',
2. Option1 Selects Output the inverted 'Binary' value of the inputs (see Option1 below).
3. New Protocol for 'Syncing' with the BrightSign. Send 0AAh (decimal 170) before the Port Byte. This new protocol eliminates the random lights while the BrightSign is booting.

Option 1: Selects 'Send Inverted Binary Byte' for the Inputs (inputs 0-7).   The inputs are inverted (1's become 0's and vice versa), and this binary byte is sent to the BrightSign.
                  I.E. If input 0 is pulled low, then binary 00000001 (value of 1) is sent to the BrightSign. When Input 0 is released (goes high), then the new value of the 'inverted' input port is sent (value=0)
                  Note: This overrides the 'string' that BrightAuthor expects and should only be used for BrightScript.

Option2 : 20% Lights if no lights are selected (see the Port Byte).

Option3: Reflect Inputs to Lamp Drivers (Diagnostic). Very useful when wiring to external circuitry.

Option4: Cycle Lamps (Diagnostic) One Lamp at a time is turned on (Outputs 0-7), 0AAh sent to the Roku port (RS232) every second.

Operation:

The BrightSign software is written to respond to 'strings' from the serial port. The Strings are '0'-'7' (ascii values) followed by carriage return.

The new 'Set Port' Protocol for controlling the lights is: 170, Port_Byte. Send this two byte sequence out using the 'comma separated bytes' serial command in BrightAuthor.

At any time, the Brightsign sends out the 'Set Port String', then the lamps will light according to the bit pattern of the 'Port Byte'. I.E. Bit 0 of the byte, will turn on Ouput-0.

Example: To just set the Outputs, Send 170 (decimal), then the byte that represents the bits of the output (see table below)

Bit Binary Decimal
0 00000001b 1d
1 00000010b 2d
2 00000100b 4d
3 00001000b 8d
4 00010000b 16d
5 00100000b 32d
6 01000000b 64d
7 10000000b 128d

Just add the decimal numbers together to get the bits set that you want. Setting all bits on is 255d (decimal). Setting bits 0 and 7 on is 128+1 or 129 decimal

Note: External Supply Voltage: An External Power Supply is needed to power the loads on the output connector. Do not connect any loads that have their own power that exceeds the power as applied to the board using the 'Ext. Power Connector'. Doing so may result in damage to the board. I.E. Suppose that 12 volts is supplied to this board and you have a relay board with it's own power of 24Volts DC that powers the relays. The 24VDC will feed back into the board via the foldback diodes. Note: Foldback diodes are required for inductive loads such as relays or small motors.

Updated: March 16, 2011