The TS-8820-BOX is a rugged, feature-rich TS-SOCKET based baseboard and Macrocontroller combination for industrial applications. Powered by the TS-4700 or TS-4800 Macrocontroller System on Module, the TS-8820-BOX provides a variety of electrically isolated I/O. The TS-8820-BOX enclosure exposes the I/O on rugged screw terminals while protecting the macrocontroller and other sensitive electronics. The TS-8820-BOX with an 800MHz TS-4700 or TS-4800 in the aluminum enclosure provides a tough, durable, flexible, powerful, and affordable industrial process control system platform.

The TS-8820 is powered by a Lattice XP2 FPGA. The FPGA interfaces with the macrocontroller MUXBUS, presenting registers that control DIO, PWMs, edge counters, H-bridges, ADC, and DAC. Other I/O features are controlled directly by the SoM, such as relays, CAN, RS-485, and RS-232. The end of the enclosure also presents connectors for Ethernet, USB host, RS-485, and RS-232, as well as a reset button. These interfaces are ideal for communicating with an HMI device such as a touch panel computer and a central server. The TS-8820-BOX also provides 2MB of non-volatile RAM and a coin cell battery to maintain integrity of this RAM as well as the time on the SoM RTC. The unit can be powered by PoE or by 10V to 30V DC.

FPGA Flexibility

The TS-8820-BOX is an ideal solution for industrial applications that require non-standard interfaces. The DIO, PWM, and pulse counter functionalities work for many applications, but many others require custom logic, which can be expensive. For a one-time engineering charge, embeddedTS engineers can create custom FPGA programming to solve a wide variety of problems. Contact embeddedTS for more information on FPGA customization.

Isolated and Buffered I/O

The ten screw terminal blocks on the front of the TS-8820-BOX are ready to connect to industrial equipment without risking damage to the computer inside the enclosure. All lines on these terminals are either opto-isolated or buffered. The buffered inputs can tolerate voltages up to 40V. The following lines are available on the screw terminals:

• Power supply input (10-30V DC)
• 8 isolated digital inputs
• 6 non-isolated inputs (40V tolerant)
• 4 isolated digital outputs
• 2 non-isolated outputs (can sink 1000mA)
• 16 ADC inputs
• 4 DAC outputs
• 2 H-bridge outputs
• 4 relays (3A at 240V AC or 5A at 30V DC)
• Isolated RS-232
• Isolated RS-485
• Isolated CAN

Each of the 14 digital inputs can act as a simple input or an edge counter. Each of the 6 outputs can act as a simple output or a PWM output at one of 8 preset frequencies. If other I/O features are needed on these lines, contact embeddedTS for custom FPGA development.

embeddedTS provides ts8820.c, an API to simplify access to DIOs, PWMs, edge counters, H-bridges, ADC, and DAC. Also provided is ts8820ctl.c, a wrapper utility that demonstrates usage of the API on the TS-4700 or TS-4800 macrocontroller running Linux. For industrial applications that are not sensitive to performance and latency, no C programming is required. Hardware features can be controlled by scripts written in perl, bash, php, or any language supported by Debian Linux, which issue calls to the ts8820ctl utility. For high-performance applications, C or C++ is recommended using the ts8820.c API.

Detailed Feature List

• TS-SOCKET Baseboard (requires TS-SOCKET Macrocontroller)
• 1 microSD Card Socket
• 5000 LUT Programmable FPGA
• Isolated DIO
• 4 Relays
• 16 16-bit ADC channels
• 4 12-bit DAC channels
• 8 Opto-Isolated Inputs
• 6 Inputs (40V DC Tolerant)
• PWM and counter channels
• 2 H-bridges (Optional)
• USB Host
• 1 10/100 Ethernet, Standard PoE
• Isolated RS-232, RS-485, CAN
• Battery Backed RTC
• Temperature Sensor
• Coin Cell Battery Holder
• Uses 10-30 VDC Power Input or PoE
• Low Power Input (2-3 Watts)
• Storage (-40° C to +85° C)
• Fanless operation in all temp ranges
• Boots Linux 2.6 in less than 3 Seconds
• Rugged Screw Terminal Connectors
• Industrial Aluminum Enclosure (Optional DIN Rail mount)
• Unbrickable, Boots from SD or Flash
• Supports tsinit self-customization
• Software API