Glossary

When using RS-485 2-wire communication, one of the most important things to determine is when to switch the transmitter on and off. Because of the restrictions imposed by the RS-485 interface, only 1 node (on an RS-485 2-wire bus) can switch on it's transmitter at any given time. The node that wishes to send data must switch on it's transmitter, and then switch it off after the last data bit has been sent.

There are 2 ways to take care of the job of switching a transmitter on and off. One method is to use the RTS signal to control the transmitter manually by software. The other method is to use ADDC??(Automatic Data Direction Control).

ADDC switches the transmitter on and off very precisely by hardware, effectively simplifying the complexity of timing control by software.

ASIC chips are specially designed chips that provide unique functions. ASIC chips can replace general-purpose commercial logic chips, and integrate several functions or logic control blocks into one single chip, lowering manufacturing cost and simplifying circuit board design.

Asynchronous communication refers to digital communication (such as between computers) in which there is no timing requirement for transmission, and in which the start of each individual character is signaled by the transmitting device.