Splitter....

[n1ist]

I just got the boards; now to load one and test it.  Already discovered I ordered the wrong fuse holders, and that I am out of vertical RJ45s...  Shouldn't affect testing, however.
/mike

[MrChristmas2000]

That is a good looking board.

Do you have any initial estimante on cost?

[n1ist]

Single piece Mouser BOM is about $35.  That includes everything except the PCB, TA200 case, and power cord.  Slightly lower for the 220V folks, but they will need a wallwart to power it (the transformer is not available in a 220v version - the wallwart would likely be anything in the 7 to 15v range, AC or DC, but I need to do some testing to verify that range).

/mike

[RJ]

Nice job.

RJ

[DanHouston]

Nice work!

[tmcteer]

 I'm curious... why are all the vias and pads seems to be filled with solder?

Nice work Mike

Tom

[n1ist]

They're not.  I scanned the board on a scanner; you are seeing the white of the cover thru the holes.  The vias are actually tented (covered with solder mask) on both sides; this would be an issue if the board was being wave-soldered but not a problem for hand soldering.  I keep forgetting that is the default setting.

/mike

[n1ist]

As I was finishing the testing, I ran into an issue.  The power transformer can't handle the load of the driver chips I used when running multiple outputs.  I'll do a quick respin using the MAX490 chips that RJ used on the active hub, driving 2 connectors and one passthru connector like on the passive hub.

More to follow.
/mike

[n1ist]

Respun board has been loaded; it looks like it is working now.  I have sent one out to Dan for testing.  I have to nudge the transformer a tad before I release it as one of the pins hits the standoff below it, but that's a very minor tweak.
/mike

[rm357]

Question from post #26.

The output of the etherdongle is 4 universes of pixelnet.
Pixelnet and Ethernet are not compatible protocols, the switch wouldn't know how to interpret the data or what to do with it...

[n1ist]

The board has been tested, and the coop is now open.

[taybrynn]

Can someone give me a brief description of what this does and what you could do with it in practical terms?

[n1ist]

It is like the DMX splitter, except it is for pixelnet.  It has one input, a passthru, and two regenerated outputs.  It works like the pixelnet output of an active or passive hub without the SSC ports.

You can use it when you need to split a pixelnet run to two places and don't want to tie up a hub.  It also regenerates the signals so you don't run into issues with too many pixelnet hubs or devices on a cable.

[tbone321]

Is the one being released different than the one in the picture?  The onein the picture really looks like all three are being regenerated.  I'm no questioning, just curious.

[n1ist]

Yes, it is different.  I had to change it because the new power transformer couldn't provide enough current to handle those drivers (they are quite power-hungry). 
/mike