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Automation FAQ Sponsored by Creative Control Concepts |
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 Home Automation FAQ : HA Equipment : Creative Control Concepts/HCS-II : HCS-II Supervisory Controller :
I'm having trouble after my upgrade when I put all my stack boards on |
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A few users have reported problems that after they install the CPU upgrade, they cannot get reliable operation with all their stack boards installed. These users usually have 3-5 stack boards installed and when they remove some of the bigger boards (like the HCS-Voice or HCS-DTMF) they notice an improvement. (See bugs 13, 14, and 35)
The original HCS boards used 74LS245 drivers. At 9.216 MHz they were being pushed to their limits to drive 4 or 5 stack boards. They worked, but there was not much room for error. The CPU upgrade doubles the speed of the bus and shortens the access cycles for IO boards. In some cases, this has been enough to over stress the LS245 bus drivers, especially if they are old (ie in RTC180 format boards). New HCS systems have been shipping with 74HCT245 driver ICs. These ICs use less power, are constructed with CMOS drivers, can operate at higher speeds, and can drive bigger loads. Users who have had problems driving their large board stacks have found replacing their LS245 ICs with HCT245 versions makes them very stable. So if you are having stability problems using an S180 CPU and a number of stack boards, replace your LS245s with HCT245's. If you ordered a CPU upgrade from us, we'll provide you with new HCT logic ICs free of charge. Just email our sales department with the Invoice # of your CPU upgrade purchase (or about when you ordered it) and mention you are having stability problems. Well get your chips to you asap.
Note that we've seen this problem mostly on RTC180 format boards. We have not seen it much with HCS-DX2 boards which use different circuit boards and probably newer LS245s.
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The problem turned out to be with the glue logic ICs. We have switched all teh glue logic ICs (except the 7425) to 74F ICs. Upgrade kits have been sent to ALL customers who bought new HCS-II boards and Upgrade kits.
These upgrade kits will allow the HCS to perform as it should, even with a full stack of 5 daughterboards.
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