ETHERNET FOR THERMAL ARRAY CHART RECORDERS

Abstract

This paper will examine real-time ethernet capabilities in general and will describe in detail a practical implementation of an Ethernet interface that allows commands and data to be sent to a thermal array recorder using a standard TCP/IP, Novell, or similar interface. This interface allows two types of data transmission. First, real-time data may be sent at low rates for slow speed monitoring or, second, high speed packets may be sent for storage in local FIFO memory. A header containing sample rate information allows the recorder to reconstruct the data on paper smoothly so that it has the appearance of real-time recording but is slightly delayed. In addition, normal host control commands may be interleaved with data for a complete high speed digital data system.