RS485 Comm Cabling Warning for Anyone

[dgrant]

This is just advice to anyone but especially new people here. I set up my system and had it all cabled up and working normally. Several days ago it ran normally. Then I elected to run a test again last night. Failed miserably with controllers disappearing, re-appearing, none at all, then all of them and etc...all over the place. At first I thought it was a new cabling change to the outside world but that was only E1.31 and not the RS485 which wasn't touched. Then thought Windows might have altered the driver on me but again, wasn't the case. Considered interference issues but couldn't identify any.

 

This morning, same problems as I started troubleshooting. What I found, in my hurry to cable up the RS485, I had stopped "thinking" briefly and split off an ELL into two directions rather than using it as a receiver only. This apparently messed up the bandwidth of the RS485 data through the now, improper daisy-chain. After fixing my screw-up, it works and tests out normally.

 

Word of advice, do not take short cuts. Do it properly the first time and avoid issues that will stop your first night when it goes live.