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SP504AN Datasheet, PDF (4/11 Pages) Sipex Corporation – Application Note
SP504 - DTE/DCE Configuration
Many systems may require the serial port to be
configured as either a DTE or DCE. The SP504
is an ideal candidate for a space saving DTE/
DCE solution.
To perform this with the SP504, the driver out-
puts of the first SP504 are connected back into
the receiver inputs of the second SP504, and
vice versa. The common input/output lines can
be routed to the connector and be used as ei-
ther driver outputs or receiver inputs. Refer to
the following page for configuration details.
When the two SP504 devices are connected as
such, one device must be disabled while the
other is transmitting and receiving data. Dis-
abling one of the SP504 devices allows the
other to communicate over the serial bus. One
is dedicated to a DTE configuration to the se-
rial port and the other is a dedicated DCE de-
vice. Disabling the DTE device implies that
the serial port will be configured as a DCE, and
vice versa.
Disabling the SP504 drivers are important be-
cause a bus contention problem can occur if
two drivers are active at the same time. The
drivers of the nonactive SP504 must be tri-
stated by writing "0000" into the driver decoder
(TDECX) lines when the I/O lines are used as
inputs into the receivers. The receivers do not
have to be tri-stated but should be configured
so that the receiver input impedance is rela-
tively high (≥12kΩ) such as RS-422 or RS-485.
The receiver inputs will not affect the signals
on the driver outputs if the input impedance is
at least 12kΩ. If the RDECX is configured with
"0000", the input impedance defaults to at least
12kΩ.
Please note that most of the V.35 termination
resistors are internal to the SP504. As such, the
driver output impedance during tri-state is
approximately 20kΩ. This should not affect or
degrade the incoming driver signal from the
other end. Refer to the waveform graphs in the
next few pages. The "DTE" waveforms cap-
ture the driver and receiver signals at the serial
port containing the two SP504 devices. The
"DCE" waveforms are measured in the SP504
at the other end. For example, the TxD driver
output on the DCE side corresponds to the RxD
receiver on the DTE side (side containing two
SP504 devices). Similarly, the TxC driver out-
put on the DTE side should be the same as the
RxC receiver input on the DCE side.
Even though the signal is not degraded, the
lower impedance basically adds the driver out-
put impedance (20kΩ) and the receiver input
impedance in parallel. When the active SP504
is configured to RS-232 mode, the typical re-
ceiver input impedance is 5kΩ which will yield
4kΩ. When in the other modes except V.35,
the typical input impedance is 15kΩ which
yields 7.5kΩ when the receivers are configured
in differential mode (i.e. RS-422, RS-449, V.36,
etc.) which is still greater than the 4kΩ mini-
mum requirement for RS-422 and RS-423. The
input impedance for the V.35 receiver is typi-
cally 100Ω. The driver tri-state impedance will
decrease the input approximately 0.5Ω to 1Ω
given that the external 150Ω termination resis-
tor is switched off or disconnected from the non-
inverting driver output of the disabled SP504.
This configuration will allow the proper data
communications between DTE and DCE. How-
ever for NET1/NET2 certification testing, the
driver outputs must be physically disconnected
from the receiver inputs. The common I/O paths
will interfere with various impedance and cur-
rent testing for the driver or receiver in V.28,
V.11 and V.35 modes.
SP504AN
SP504 Application Note
4
© Copyright 2000 Sipex Corporation