AvaLAN Wireless AW900R2 User Manual

AvaLAN

W I R E L E S S

AW900R2-PAIR

USER’S MANUAL

900 MHz Outdoor Wireless RS-232 Bridge

Industrial-grade, long-range wireless systems

AW900R2-PAIR

Thank you for your purchase of the AW900R2-PAIR Outdoor Wireless RS-232 Bridge.

If you have any questions when conguring your AvaLAN system, the best place to
get answers is to visit www.avalanwireless.com. You will also nd the latest updates
there.

If more assistance is needed, send email to [e-mail].

To speak to a live technician, please call technical support at the number below
during normal business hours.

User’s Manual

Limited Warranty

This product is warranted to the original purchaser for normal use for a period of 360 days
from the date of purchase. If a defect covered under this warranty occurs, AvaLAN will repair
or replace the defective part, at its option, at no cost. This warranty does not cover defects
resulting from misuse or modication of the product.

© 2010 by AvaLAN Wireless Systems Inc. All rights reserved.

Revision 06.28.2010

125A Castle Drive

Madison, AL 35758

Sales: [phone]

Technical Support: [phone]

Customer Service: [phone]

Fax: [phone]

Technical support [phone] www.avalanwireless.com

PAGE 2

User’s Manual AW900R2-PAIR

Operational summary

RS-232 is a point-to-point serial data connection that requires just three wires:
Transmit Data, Receive Data and Ground. Because there is no handshake involved,
both ends must be congured for matching data timing and protocol or communica­tion will not occur. Also, it is possible to lose data if the receiving device cannot
keep up with the sending device. The AW900R2-PAIR supports data rates from 9600
Baud to 115,200 Baud and has a 4 KB data buffer. When properly congured, this
pair of radios behave just like an RS-232 cable but without the length constraint and
without a physical wire.

The AW900R2-PAIR is shipped from the factory pre-congured to meet most user’s
needs. If this conguration works for you, most of the rest of the information in this
manual is not relevant. The pre-conguration settings are:

• One radio is the Access Point or master and the other radio is the Subscriber
Unit or client.

• The RF frequency channel will automatically change to avoid interference.

• The Network ID and AES Encryption Key are all zeros.

• The serial port settings are 115200 Baud, 8 data bits, 2 stop bits, no parity.

• Tuning parameters are optimized for minimum latency: Next Byte Delay - 00,
Minimum Packet Size - 01, Maximum Packet Size - 024. These parameters are
explained on page 7.

AW900R2 radios may be re-congured by removing the cover and connecting a PC
to a USB port on the module inside. A utility program from AvaLAN is then run on
the PC that can set the conguration and check the link status. The LED display on
the inside module is also a very useful indicator of the condition of the wireless
connection.

The access point (AP) automatically scans for the best of the 12 available radio
frequency channels, encrypts RS-232 data received, and transmits it wirelessly to
the subscriber unit (SU). The AP is constantly monitoring the radio link and can
automatically change the channel if performance is degraded due to interference.
If two AP units from two different bridges are very close to one another, they may
interfere if operating on adjacent frequency channels. Place them at least 10 feet
apart or manually select non-adjacent channels for their operation. Also, the two
radios in the bridge should be placed at least 10 feet apart to avoid overloading the
radio receivers.

At each end of the wireless bridge, the RS-232 device wired to the AW900R2-PAIR
must have its transmit signal connected to the radio’s receive and vice versa. Mis­wiring will not cause damage, but will prevent communication.

Technical support [phone] www.avalanwireless.com

PAGE 3

AW900R2-PAIR

User’s Manual

Electrical Connections

The AW900R2-PAIR 900 MHz Outdoor Wireless RS-232 Bridge contains two each of
the following items:

• Outdoor wireless RS-232 radios

• AW2-900 Omnidirectional Antennas

• RJ-45 to Screw Terminal 30 foot cables

• DB-9 Female to Screw Terminal breakout adapters

• 20” USB to Mini-USB Adapter Cables

• 120VAC to 12 VDC Wall Hanger Power Supplies

Antennas or other useful accessories such as pole-mounting brackets may be pur­chased from AvaLAN Wireless or our distributors.

To power up a radio, make connections to it as shown in this diagram:

Terminal Block

RS-232

Data

Source

Receive

Transmit

Ground

Rx (orange twisted pair)

Tx (green twisted pair)

+ (blue twisted pair)

GND (brown twisted pair)

White-striped
wire: +12 VDC

12 VDC Power Supply

Plain black

wire

30’ Cable

Screw Terminals

to RJ-45

Weatherproof
Sealing Gland

900 MHz
Antenna

Connect both ends of the wireless link to their respective RS-232 devices, power
supplies and antennas in similar fashion. The radios use an RJ-45 connector for
data because they leverage the weatherproof solution already developed for our
Ethernet products. If the length or termination method of the cable supplied does
not meet your needs, an inexpensive CAT5 cable can be used by installing an RJ-45
plug on the radio end and terminating the other end however you need.

Provide some physical separation between two radio module antennas — at least
ten feet. If their antennas are in close proximity, the module radio receivers will be
overloaded, causing degradation in the bit error rate and slower link performance.

Technical support [phone] www.avalanwireless.com

PAGE 4