William Heath, Commercial Director of OMC, comments: "Certain applications require complete confidence in the integrity of data transmission. Fiber optic data links are reliable, fully secure, noise-free, interference-proof, and electrically isolated. These boards have been designed to simplify the process of integrating fiber optic data links into a digital system."
The board is designed for use with the Arduino Uno and is stackable. It has jumpers for the transmitter and receiver devices. An example program is provided that demonstrates a data link using the UART ports to transmit data over the fiber optic link. The data can be monitored using the Arduino software's serial monitor, or the code is written to interface with a standard 16x2 LCD shield that can be stacked on top of the fiber board.
The board can be used with any of the available microprocessor baud rates: 300, 600, 1200, 2400, 4800, 9600, 14400, 19200, 28800, 38400, 57600, or 115200. The fiber optic transmitter and receiver pair can operate at up to 5Mbd—the display is simply a way to demonstrate the potential of incorporating a fiber optic link into a design.
The shielding plate can be used with PMMA cables up to 25 meters long in the standard configuration. For longer ranges, OMC offers a high-power transmitter option and also devices suitable for use with fiberglass if PMMA is unsuitable for the application. The transmitter and receivers can be ordered separately for integration into customer designs. Other cable lengths and alternative fiber or jacket types are also available upon request. OMC can also supply the transmitter and receiver components of this shielding unit mounted in alternative housings for connecting to different fiber types.
