Installation Instructions

Hardware Installation
RVP8 User’s Manual
September 2005
2–23
S EXT LED indicates that the 12V input power is present
S INT LED indicates that +3.3V is present
S GO LED indicates that the panel is properly communicating with the PCI card. It will
blink slowly when communication is absent and very rapidly during the BRIEF times
that the backpanel firmware are being updated with an rdaflash command. It will be
solid when the panel is being used by the RCP8 software.
The table in Section 1.9.5 provides a summary of the I/O for each connector. Detailed pin–out
assignments are given in Appendix C. Descriptions of the various signals are provided below.
J1 & J4- AZ/EL Input: TTL parallel angles
Thirty two TTL-Level input lines. These are sampled by the RVP8, and the bits accompany
each processed output ray (See PROC command, Section 6.7). The inputs can also be read
directly via the GPARM command (See Section 6.9). The RVP8 supports an antenna
synchronizing mode and inserts the AZ and EL start and stop angles into the ray header of each
radial (nominally 1 degree). Whenever antenna angle data are required, the processor reads the
azimuth lines up to ten times in a row (spaced by 0.5 msec) until two successive values compare
equal. This is done so that unsynchronized input data will be latched in a valid state. If after ten
retries the lines were never observed in a consistent state, then the last observed state is used.
Sampling for elevation is identical.
The format can be BCD or binary angle. Detailed pin assignments are given in Appendix B.
J2 & J5- AZ/EL Output: TTL parallel angles
These provide output of the AZ and EL angles in TTL BCD or binary angle format. Detailed pin
assignments are given in Appendix B. This feature could output the parallel angles to a separate
antenna controller for example.
J3- PHASE OUT: 8-bit RS422 phase shifter control output
Can be used as differential RS422 or as single–ended TTL. This is used to control a phase
shifter for coherent systems that use phase modulation, but do not have a Tx card. This is
typically used for legacy systems.
J6- RELAY: Control for external equipment
Often, external equipment in the radar will require relay control (e.g., power on, radiate on,
environmental systems, reset lines, slow polarization switch). This connector has connections for
3 internal relays that are on the connector panel itself. The maximum current through the relay
contacts is 0.5 A continuous. The switching load is 0.25 A and 100V, with the additional
constraint that the total power not exceed 4VA.