24-channel ARINC 429 Interface

The DNA/DNR/DNF-429-516 are ARINC 429 communications interfaces for UEI’s popular Cube / RACKtangle / FLATRACK I/O chassis respectively. The DNx-429-516 offers 16 TX/RX channels and 8dedicated RX channels. The 8 dedicated RX channels are a new feature and are available on all 429-516 boards. The TX drivers on the TX/RX channels can be disabled on a channel-by-channel basis. To use a TX/RX channel as RX simply disable the TX driver on that channel.

The board is fully compatible with the earlier DNx-429-516-024 board and software written for the DNx-429-516-024 version will work without issue on the new board. The new board simply adds 8 dedicated RX channels to the connector that were previously labelled s RSVD on earlier versions of the DNx-429-516.

All boards are fully compliant with the ARINC 429 spec and support both high speed (100 kHz) and low speed (12.5 kHz) operation. The channel speed is software selectable on a channel by channel basis. The channel speed can be set to frequencies other than 100 and 12.5 kHz to support legacy devices that “push” the ARINC 429 standard.

Data integrity, even when all channels are set in high speed mode, is assured with the use of 256 word FIFOs on all channels. and in both directions. The board is part of UEI’s Guardian series and provides a diagnostic, on-board ARINC-429 receiver connected to each transmit channel. This allows the application to confirm the correct information has been written to the ARINC-429 bus.

Channels may be set to transmit asynchronously or based on a hardware controlled scheduler. Each channel supports a transmission table that allows up to 256 unique schedules. Transmission schedule resolution is100 microseconds. There is also a TX mode where a label is transmitted only upon receipt of data from a pre-programmed label. Asynchronous (non-scheduled) data may be sent with three priorities. High priority data is sent immediately upon completion of the current transmission, regardless of scheduled messages. Data sent with standard priority is transmitted during times when no scheduled data is being sent. Finally, the lowest priority is data streamed from a 256 word FIFO which is sent when no scheduled, high or standard priority data is being transmitted.

The DNx-429-516 series provides a host of helpful filtering capabilities. The board may be set to only return data from specific labels. Data from up to 255 labels may be read or the board can be set to read data from all labels. A “new data only” filter compares the received label data to the most recent previous reading and only returns data if something has changed. Data may also be filtered based on the SDI bits.

Software for the DNx-429-516 is included with the board. The UEIDAQ Framework provides a comprehensive, easy to use API supporting all popular Windows programming languages. Factory written and supported drivers are also included for Linux and are available for other popular real-time operating systems including QNX and VxWorks. Finally, the UEIDAQ Framework supplies complete support for those creating applications in all popular data acquisition and control packages, including LabVIEW, MATLAB/Simulink, as well as any application which supports ActiveX or OPC servers.

The DNx-429-516 board is also fully supported by UEI’s popular UEIPAC series chassis.