Quick Reference

12/09/99

Power Automation

Digital Interface Standards

This reference describes some well-known Digital Interface Standards

1 RS-232
In the 1960s, the Electronics Industries Association (EIA) of the USA
developed the RS-232 interface standard. Although showing its age,
RS-232 is still very much the defacto interface for serial communications.
Even though RS-232 can be used for both asynchronous and synchronous
communications, asynchronous communications is the norm in our industry.
Quick Reference

RS-232 provides one-way/non-reversible, single ended (unbalanced), point-

to-point, non-terminated line, serial digital data transmission (neat huh!)
Well no, not really. These characteristics make RS-232 suitable for low
speed, short distance communications only recommended maximum cable
length is 50 feet and maximum baud rate is 20Kbps. To overcome these
limitations, the EIA introduced the RS-423 and RS-422 in 1975.

2 RS-423
RS-423 is similar to RS-232 in that it provides one-way/non-reversible, point-
to-point data transmission. However, it uses a balanced receiver which
makes higher speeds and longer distances possible maximum cable
length is 4000ft @ 1 Kbps, and maximum baud rate is 100 Kbps @ 40ft.

3 RS-422
RS-422 provides balanced data transmission with uni-directional/non-
reversible, point-to-point, terminated or non-terminated transmission lines. It
offers significantly higher speeds maximum cable length is 4000ft @ 100
Kbps, and maximum baud rate is 10 Mbps @ 40ft.

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4 RS-485
RS-485 was introduced in 1983 to address the limitations of all of the above
point-to-point. (Point-to-point means that only two devices can be connected together.)
What do you do when you want to connect a lot of devices together on a common
communication line? Use RS-485. It has most of the same characteristics as RS-422,
except that up to 32 devices can be connected onto the same two wires.

There are some other standards that you may have knowledge of: RS-449 is a System
Standard covering the use of RS-422 and RS-485. In Europe, the combination of
CCITT Vol. VIII V.24 and V.28 is equivalent to RS-232, and CCITT V.10 and V.11 are
functionally equivalent to RS-422 and RS-423 respectively.

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