XTx44 Hardware Interfaces

This section describes the characteristics and operation of all connectors on the XT244 and XT1144.

Power Connector

The power connector for the XT244 and XT1144 is rated for 12V@3A. The plug is a right-side positive, locking 2-pin (1x2) connector.

3.5mm Serial 

The UART (asynchronous serial) interface is a 3.5mm (1/8") jack that uses RS-232 levels for communication. The receiver will tolerate input voltages between -30V and +30V, with anything below 3V interpreted as a logical 1. The transmitter drives +8V for logical 0 and -8V for logical 1. 

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

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

• Tip: Receive

• Ring: Transmit

• Sleeve: Ground

BrightSign players are DCE devices, so communication with another DCE 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 is a DTE device with a DE9 serial port (performing asynchronous transmission), the serial cable should be wired as shown in the following diagram:

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GPIO

The XT244 and XT1144 have a 12-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 wish to source your own terminal blocks, make sure to use 4-pin or 6-pin blocks (12-pin blocks are extremely difficult to remove from the GPIO port).

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 GPIO also allows for 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:

GPIO Pinout 

The following table describes the pinout of the GPIO on the XT244 and XT1144: 

The following schematic illustrates the pinout of the GPIO connector:

Example Diagrams

The following example diagrams demonstrate how LED buttons can be wired to the GPIO connector (in both 1- and 4-button configurations):

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RJ45 LAN

The RJ45 connector on the XT series supports 1000BASE-T networking, as well as Power over Ethernet (PoE) Type 1 and Type 2. Note that there are operational restrictions when using PoE Type 1.

The maximum length for Cat 5E cable is 91 meters for PoE applications and 100 meters for non-PoE applications; the allowed length can be higher or lower depending on the quality of the cable.

USB

The XT1144 has two USB 2.0 ports: one Type A and one Type C. The Type A connector can act as a dedicated charging port (DCP) when the two data pins are shorted together, and the Type C connector can operate as either a host or a device (i.e. a dual-role port).

The Type-A connector can supply up to 1.5A of power for peripherals, while the Type-C connector can supply up to 1A.  Note that these values are subject to a total current restriction of 2A for peripherals.

Both ports 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 port:

The following table illustrates the pinout of the USB 2.0 Type C host port:

3.5mm Audio Connector

The XT244 and XT1144 have a combination analog/optical 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 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@50mA

• Ring: IR Input

• Sleeve: IR Output

HDMI Output

The HDMI^® out connector is used to send digital video and audio to HDMI-enabled sink devices. This connector is compatible with HDMI 2.0 devices, capable of outputting a maximum video resolution of 4096x2160x60p.

The following table illustrates the pinout of the HDMI connector:

HDMI Input

The HDMI-in connector is used to receive digital video and audio from HDMI-enabled source devices. This connector is compatible with HDMI 2.0 devices and capable of accepting a maximum video resolution of 4096x2160x60p. The signaling also conforms with DVI 1.0, HDMI 1.4, and HDCP 1.4 standards.

The HDMI signaling has CEC (but no ARC or HEC) functionality. The CEC channel is electrically coupled to the corresponding signal on the HDMI output, and the CEC commands will pass through the player even when it does not have power.