Q:
Do you have any PCB designs that can help me connect my slip ring to an Ethernet connector?
A:
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We recently completed a project, where we helped someone establish communication between an ADIS16485 and the EVAL-ADIS evaluation system, which were over 2 meters apart from each other. In addition to the distance, the ADIS16485 was on top of a rotating platform, inside of an temperature chamber, while the EVAL-ADIS was outside of the chamber. Since the remote communication port (J1) on the EVAL-ADIS will only support 12 inches of ribbon cable to a remotely located ADIS1648x, we decided to see if using LVDS signals for the majority of the distance between the sensor (ADIS1648x) and the evaluation system (EVAL-ADIS) could reach the separation goal of at least 2 meters. This approach was very successful, as our first set of PCBs supported nearly 9 meters of separation, without a single bad data point, while sweeping the temperature over a range of -40C to +85C. The following picture illustrates three different PCBs that supported this preliminary test.
This post relates to one of the PCBs in this group: the Slip Ring Adapter. This board contains two 1x8 connectors that can connect to a slip ring interface and two Ethernet connectors. When using this PCB along with the other two PCBs in this picture, one can drive SPI signals from the ADIS1648x over Ethernet cable to the EVAL-ADIS SPI Extender PCB.
Please find the file attachment, which contains a file bundle of the electrical schematic, PCB drawing, PCB gerbers, assembly view and bill of materials. We (ADI) do not presently plan to sell this board, but hope that these documents help reproduce this PCB for those who are interested in doing so.