Introduction

Repeate RS-485 and RS-422 Repeater

Features

The Westermo RD-48 repeater is a very versatile product having a number of possible uses within industrial RS-422/485 networks. The RD-48 can be used as a repeater to increase the size of a network and get over some of limitations of the RS-485 and RS-422 standards. The RD-48 can be used to extend a bus beyond 1.2km or allow more than 32 devices to be connected, but most importantly it allows you to deviate from a bus topology and create branched networks. The RD-48 can also work as a converter between 2 and 4 wire networks, with built in switch selectable failsafe and termination this again gives flexibility to a system. The third use for an RD-48 is as an RS-422/485 isolator. Like all Westermo products these units have tri-galvanic isolation a feature vital for use in industrial environments.

The units also have inbuilt transient suppression to limit damage from noise spikes and are designed to function reliably in harsh electromagnetic environments. Two power supply options are available for these units. The LV- Low Voltage option can handle input voltages of 9.6-57.6 VDC and the HV-High Voltage versions can handle 85.5-264 VAC and 88-300 VDC. The RD-48 has anti-blocking technology so that a fault on one part of a network will not be propagated by the RD-48 so allowing other network segments to continue functioning normally. Data rates up to 1.5 Mbit/s can be handled by the RD-48. A special retiming function allows multiple repeaters to be used even on the highest speed networks that can be very sensitive to jitter caused by long cables and data passing though ordinary repeaters.