HO523 Hardware Interfaces

This section describes the characteristics and operation of all connectors on the HO523.

RJ45 LAN

The HO523 has an RJ45 connector for 1000BASE-T networking. The maximum length for Cat 5E cable is 100 meters; the allowed length can be higher or lower depending on the quality of the cable.

USB

The HO523 has two USB 2.0 Type-A ports, which are capable of transfer speeds up to 480 Mbit/s. The maximum length for a USB cable is 5 meters.

The following table illustrates the pinout of the USB 2.0 Type A host ports:

GPIO

The HO523 has a 6-pin GPIO switch and LED connector, which allows the player to control external LEDs or other devices requiring 24mA of current or less.

The GPIO port is a standard design manufactured by Phoenix Contact, Wurth Electronics, and others. Pluggable GPIO terminal blocks can be inserted into the GPIO connector to make bare-wire contacts (see here for an example part). These terminal blocks can be purchased from the BrightSign Store.

If you are using the GPIO connector to drive LEDs, connect the LED outputs to the LED ANODE and connect the LED CATHODE to the ground. If you want to connect another device, then the output is capable of sourcing or sinking up to 3.3V at 24mA, but there is a series resistor of 100Ω in each line.

The connector also allows the connecting of external contact closures to the ground. In order to connect a switch, connect one side of the switch to the switch input, and connect the other side to one of the ground pins on the GPIO connector. The connector can also supply 3.3V at up to 500mA to an external device. The 3.3V output is polyfuse-protected and can source up to 500mA.

If one BrightSign player is driving the inputs on another BrightSign player, then you can drive at most three inputs from one output. The following calculations explain this limitation:

 The following table describes the pinout of the GPIO on the HO523:

The following schematic illustrates the pinout of the GPIO connector:

Open

3.5mm IR Input/Output

The IR blaster generates or receives a space-encoded NEC or Pronto Hex signal. The two transported bit values of the signal (0 and 1) are encoded using differing lengths of low-time IR pulses.

The 3.5mm IR in/out port has the following pinout:

• Tip: 3.3V

• Ring: IR Input

• Sleeve: IR Output

3.5mm Audio Connector

The HO523 has a combination analog/digital audio jack. To transmit a digital audio signal, use a TOSLINK optical audio cable with a 3.5mm connector. Analog and digital audio cannot be transmitted simultaneously.

The full-scale voltage output of the analog audio is 2V RMS. The minimum load impedance is 32Ω.

The analog audio connector has the following pinout:

• Tip: Left audio

• Ring: Right audio

• Sleeve: Ground for audio signal

3.5mm Serial

The UART (asynchronous serial) interface is a 3.5mm (1/8") jack that uses TTL for communication. The receiver will tolerate input voltages between -30V and +30V, with anything below 3V interpreted as a logical 1. The transmitter drives +5V for logical 0 and 0V for logical 1. BrightSign players are DTE devices, so communication with other DTE devices requires a null-modem cable or converter that transposes the TX/RX signals from the 3.5mm port.

The default baud rate of the interface is 115200, with no parity, 8 data bits, and 1 stop bit. These settings can be configured in the software. The serial interface supports TX, RX, and ground only—RTS/CTS hardware flow control is not supported.

The 3.5mm serial port has the following configuration (from the perspective of the player):

• Tip: Receive

• Ring: Transmit

• Sleeve: Ground

BrightSign players are DTE devices, so communication with another DTE device that uses a 3.5mm port would require a null-modem cable or converter that transposes the TX/RX signals. If the device communicating with the player uses a DE9 serial port, the serial cable should be wired as shown in the following diagram:

Open

The following diagram illustrates the behavior of the TX and RX signal:

JAE TX25

The HO523 features a single 80-pin JAE TX25 connector (part no. TX25-80P-LT-H1E) for interfacing with displays via the Open Pluggable Specification (OPS) standard. This interface provides the following features:

• Power: DC IN 12V~19V @ 8A max (1A per power pin)

• Display Interface: TMDS only

• Audio: Left and Right channel

• USB: 4x USB 2.0 (2 to external, 1 to WiFi, 1 to display)

• UART: Tx/Rx serial communication. 

  
  
  

• Control Signaling: Pluggable Module Power Status, Power ON via display panel, Pluggable Board Detect, Consumer Electronics Control (CEC), System Fan Control

JAE TX25 can connect to two compliant receptacle connectors: TX24-80R-LT-H1E (standard interface) and TX24A-80R-LT-H1E (high-speed interface). We recommend the TX24A-80R-LT-H1E interface for all applications.

Pin Assignment

The following table describes the pin assignments of the JAE TX25 connector. The I/O column is from the perspective of the HO523 pluggable board.