 |
 |
 |
 |
- Hi,
- Does anyone have experience of, or information on connecting a set of
- HP's (3 in my case) to the outside world via twisted pair ethernet.
- The three HP's are already linked using thin coaxial cable. Is it possible
- to plug both cable types into one interface board (on say a mac)
- and have both arms talk to each other, or is there a transducer that
- would match the signals?
-
- any help would be appreciated
-
- Ray
-
Ray, what you're looking for is called a twisted pair hub. The most
basic model will have about 4 twisted pair ports plus one thinwire
port and cost a little under $100. You pay more for more ports, more
port types (thinwire, cascaded UTP and thick wire, for instance) and
you pay a lot more for 'managed' hubs, which I would bet big money you
don't need. (Managed hubs are appropriate for big network operations,
where you can control and interrogate a bunch of them from a central
location.)
If my assumption is correct that your network people have given you an
RJ45 socket as your connection to the outer world, then you want a
simple 4 or 8 port hub (you'll only need one port now, but the extra
capacity is inexpensive and you'll eventually use it.) with a thinwire
connection (may be advertised as BNC). It would be an advantage but
not necessary if the hub is advertised explicitly as being able to be
cascaded. If it is, it will have one special twisted pair port for
connecting to another twisted pair hub, which you would use to connect
to your outer network. If it doesn't have a cascadable port, you need
to get a special twisted pair cable, called a 'crossover' cable, that
will give you the same capability.
Once you've got the hub, you plug into the network socket with either
the special port or the special cable, plug into the 110 socket with
the power cord, plug the thinwire network into the BNC port, (treat
the BNC port just like the BNC on the computers -- use a T connection,
*don't* plug the wire directly into it.) and stick it out of the way
and forget about it.
Steve Kelley kelley@flowcyt.cyto.purdue.edu
Purdue University Cytometry Laboratories (317) 494-0757 -- voice
B050 Hansen LSRB, Purdue University (317) 494-0517 -- fax
West Lafayette, Indiana, 47907
|
|
|
|