Costar CD16 Distribution unit

[ricksi 0]

I purchased a Costar CD16 to hopefully solve problems I'm having with a RS485 star layout. Unfortunately, it didn't come with any instructions and I haven't found anything on the net or on Costar's website (which is worthless).

 

It has 18 RS422 connection ports on the back. One is marked In, one is marked Out, and the other 16 are marked 1 through 16. If I send an rs485 signal through on the In port, the signal only appears on the Out port. My understanding is that it should distribute the signal across all of the ports. Does anyone know where I can find documentation on it? Or maybe knows the basic on its operation.

[Horizon 0]

The nearest I can find is this:

http://www.costarvideo.com/downloads/specsheets/CD8.pdf

I don't know how to get to that PDF from the Costar homepage. Maybe there is something in the CD8 guide of use to you?

[ricksi 0]

Thanks for your reply. I saw that but it doesn't provide much detail. I've been playing around with it and noticed that it seems to detect when a connection is made to an output port. However, only a byte of data comes through as if the baud rate is off. Maybe it has to be configured.

[ricksi 0]

I discovered what the problem is. I connected the ground to the input port and it started to work. I usually just run a twisted pair for the A and B terminals.