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How Would You RoadTest: Isolated Digital USB 3.0 I/O Module

rscasny

Today I was approached about roadtesint this USB 3.0 I/O Module. so, I wanted to take a moment to introduce it to you, mention a few salient points, and ask the RoadTester group how they would roadtest it. Here goes:

 

This is a 16-channel isolated digital input and output USB 3.0 I/O module. It has a built in USB hub that supports a daisy chain topology. All digital input and digital output channels are protected by 2,500 VDC isolation. A few other points are:

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  • USB 3.0 SuperSpeed
  • Daisy chainable by built in USB hub
  • 16-ch digital input and 16-ch digital output with 2,500 VDC isolation
  • Wide input voltage range (10 ~ 30 VDC)
  • Wide output voltage range (5 ~ 40 VDC) and high output current (350 mA/ch)
  • Quick removable European type connector
  • LED indicators for I/O status
  • Supported operating systems: Windows XP/7/8/10 and Linux

 

 

Would you be interested in RoadTesting this product? What would you like to test or build?

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  • Well first off I would read the data sheet and learn:

     

    1) Supported operating systems are Windows XP/7/8/10

    2) The USB 3 thing is marketing hype - the opto isolator speed is quoted at 100us for the outputs only

    3) There is no rational spec of speed, no mention of round trip time, maximum input or output toggle rates, shortest detectable input event etc etc.

     

    Progressing to other stuff you find that the USB Driver needs the DaqNavi SDK (700Mb download) to make an application - never heard of this tool but it looks worryingly huge.

     

    So a Road Test should set out to find out how this thing van be used, what software is needed and how fast it can talk to code on a pC written in a standard language (like C, C++, Python) or a common one  like (C#, VB.net etc).

     

    If they offered a standard drive with documentation that explained how to hook it up to standard interfaces on a PC (ideally in Windows and Linux) that would be more use. For the versions with relay output or PhotoMos - both are slow) a virtual com port interface would do fine.

     

    The DAQNavi download is a 718Mb exe file which will presumably install some huge thing on my PC, or would if  I ran it (no chance).

     

    They have a web page:

     

    DAQNavi - Software Development Package for Advantech DAQ Products - Advantech

     

    So already we know that:

     

    we don't know how fast it is but it doesn't look very promising - if it could support 100MHz toggle rates I think they would have mentioned it

    there is a big software learning curve to get it to do anything useful

    once you've got there it needs drivers and other software horror to work, and needs a Windows PC host

     

    Since you can make or buy Ethernet based IO which is isolated, needs no drivers at all (talk by UDP or TCP), works with any OS etc etc I'm not tempted.

     

    Bias warning - I have designed both USB and Ethernet based industrial IO systems in the past and am currently active in that area.

     

    MK

  • in reply to michaelkellett

    Presumably the USB speed is more important for its hub function rather than for digital I/O - to allow other high speed devices or a lot more devices.

    DAQNavi was road tested by - it looks decent.

    RoadTest the Advantech PCIE-1816 - Review

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  • in reply to dougw

    I'm sure you are right re. the USB3, but I did feel that they could have made the speed thing a lot clearer.

     

    Re. the DAQNavi, Cosmin didn't attempt to use it to help write any code to control his board, and of course the IO board here would be different.

     

    If any one takes this on it would be really nice if they would attempt to measure the round trip time (best case, worst case and jitter). That's the time from an event at an input being detected by the PC and an output changed in response. Normal USB struggles to do better than 4ms. Ethernet can do amazingly good responses (less than 50us using UDP and even better with non standard protocols), but it is let down a bit by huge variability, if the message must pass though switches and routers it might (easily) be 1000x slower.

     

    MK