| Alternative Controller for a Fiber-Optic Switch |
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| NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California | |
| Sep 30 2007 | |
This controller communicates via a serial instead of a parallel port.
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The figure is a simplified diagram of a relatively inexpensive controller for a DiCon VX (or equivalent) fiber-optic switch — an electromechanically actuated switch for optically connecting one or two input optical fibers to any of a number of output optical fibers. DiCon VX fiber-optic switches are used primarily in research and development in the telecommunication industry. This controller can control any such switch having up to 32 output channels.  This Controller for a Fiber-Optic Switch is an alternative to a more-difficult-to-use controller that communicateswith a computer via a parallel interface. The heart of this controller is a commercially available microcontroller that includes 16 digital I/O ports and flash memory that can hold up to 1KB of program. The controller also includes an RS-232 driver. Two of the digital I/O lines are used for serial communication, via the RS-232 driver, between the microcontroller and the personal computer. Nine of the digital I/O lines are used for controlling the switch and reading its status. One of the digital I/O lines is used to control the power to the switch through a relay, and two of these lines are used to drive a two-color light-emitting- diode (LED) front-panel display. The software enables a user to interactively control the switch by means of simple commands and to monitor the responses of the switch. The front-panel display enables the user to determine the status of the switch (“busy” or “error”) at a glance. The serial-port architecture of this controller facilitates establishment of an interface between this controller and commercially available laboratory automation software. It is also possible to connect this controller to a universal serial port via an appropriate converter. Therefore, the switch can be controlled by a variety of computers, without need for expensive digital I/O boards or complicated programming. This work was done by Robert Peters of Caltech for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This Brief includes a Technical Support Package (TSP).
Alternative Controller for a Fiber-Optic Switch (reference NPO-43306) is currently available for download from the TSP library. Login first to download.
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