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The PC/104 specification allows for up to 4 I/O boards in a single stack. PCI-to-PCI bridge cards can be installed to allow the addition of extra ISA or PCI boards. The total number of I/O cards will ultimately be determined by the current consumption and I/O bandwidth for all the cards combined. Please contact your sales rep for additional information on the limitations for specific boards and system busses.

A heat sink is a traditional cooling solution that maximizes the surface area (using fins or pins) and airflow (using fans) to dissipate heat from the processor out into the surrounding air. Heat sinks with built in cooling fans are a simple, lightweight, and completely self-contained cooling solution. Depending on the available airflow they can often out-perform a similar sized heat-spreader.

Heat spreaders have a large, flat surface on top. They have no fan and no fins. Instead of cooling by forced air, the spreader is pressed directly up against another large flat surface (for example: the frame of a vehicle or the inside wall of a sealed container) and heat is allowed to pass from the small heat spreader out to the larger metal surface. Heat spreaders do not cool the CPU by themselves, they only transfer the heat to another object where it can safely dissipate away from the processor. Heat spreaders are ideal for systems that expect to operate under extreme shock and vibration, or systems that need to be completely sealed inside a container to protect it from the environment.

Fig 1) Identical CPU boards using a heatsink (left) and heat spreader (right).

ADL Embedded Solutions CMOS batteries (p/n 100-9655) are based on a 3.6V Lithium Thionyl Chloride battery, with a 100k ohm, 5%, ¼W, current limiting resistor installed to protect battery life. The resistor provides a voltage drop for a 10uA or smaller load so that the 3.6V potential does not produce excessive on-state current. Current does flow from the battery in the ON state. It is significantly less with the resistor. If no resistor was used, damage to the circuitry could occur, and the battery drain in the ON state would exceed that in the OFF state.

Most modern chipsets can keep the RTC running with less than 10uA of current from the battery, with 6uA being a typical requirement. Using the 1.20Ah rating of the battery, the life expectancy would be 1.2A/6uA = 200,000 hours, or about 22 years at +20°C. Considering that the self-discharge of the battery is <1% per year at +20°C, it is reasonable to expect that the useful life of the battery is indeed, >10 years. For serviceable applications, we suggest a 5 year service interval, in general. Regardless of the ideal time interval or operating conditions, CMOS batteries sold by ADL Embedded Solutions are mass produced and not rechargeable. ADL Embedded Solutions recommends that all developers include connectors and/or clips in their system design so that their CMOS battery can be easily replaced in the field.

The LED configuration for the GS45 LAN ports are based on the diagrams in the Intel 82579 User’s manual. (see the link below). The reference diagram is on page 239 of this manual.

http://www.intel.com/content/dam/doc/datasheet/82579-gbe-phy-datasheet-vol-2-1.pdf

There is a 300-ohm current limiting resistor in the reference diagram. The ADLGS45PC has a built-in 330-ohm resistor for both the SPEED100 and LINKACT signal lines. For those 2 LAN indicators, it’s possible to just wire in the appropriate LED to the signal pin at one end, and the other end to the 3.3V power at pin12 and you’re done.

The SPEED1000 LED (pin 7) does NOT have the 330-ohm inline resistor, and this is different from the other two signals (I’m not sure why). If you plan on using that LAN LED, you may need to add one in your design.

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Please refer to our trouble shooting guide.

The ADL Embedded Solutions SBC’s ADLS15PC, ADLGS45PC, ADLD25PC, ADL2000PC, ADLQM67PC, ADLQM87PC, and ADLE3800PC, employ a power management PIC that monitors and controls the gating of supply power into the SBC. This Power Management PIC includes a status LED that can provide some indication as to the condition of the system power as it pertains to the SBC. The following colors / conditions are defined for specific (and non-specific) board states. The following table describes some of the status LED states:

Status Codes RGB LED:

There may also be variations that are not covered by the table above.

In most cases, any RED LED means that there is an issue with the supply power. The status LED turns RED when the PIC is in RESET.

Reset is caused by the following:

• Source power has been asserted: PIC will go into reset at first power up to keep unstable power from entering the SBC. Once stable power it detected, it will gate the supply power into the board to allow it to boot.
• Flashing red: Power has been asserted and the Status LED flashes Red. There is an undervoltage/undercurrent condition that is perhaps caused by an undersized power supply, undersized wire gauge or not all supply power pins are being used.
• Solid Red: Overvoltage / Overcurrent or catastrophic error in the PIC, possibly due to an abnormal power event.

A yellow LED typically indicates standby or sleep states, however there are also undefined states not covered by the table above. These types of conditions can be caused by abnormal power events can happen infrequently. For the defined YELLOW states above, using the board momentary switch will return the board to normal operation. For the reserved states, or other undefined YELLOW LED conditions, it may be necessary to remove all power from the SBC including the CMOS battery, to clear out any erroneous data inside the PIC.

For any occurrence not described please contact ADL Embedded Solutions Technical Support for more in-depth troubleshooting.

The most common reason video monitors go blank is because users change video settings in the BIOS before they understand how it changes the Video output.

• VGA Monitors must be plugged in before the system boots. The VGA monitors are detected like any other plug-and-play device, so if the BIOS does not detect the monitor during the first strart up, the BIOS may skip over it and set another video output as the “default” video display.
• For a stock BIOS, the default video display will always be VGA. Always confirm the VGA video output is properly connected and working before you change any video settings in the BIOS.
• When setting up an LCD or LVDS we recommend setting BIOS outputs to ”dual” or “clone” mode, and work with two monitor outputs. Don’t disable the VGA output until you are sure both displays are working properly.
• Before changing any Video BIOS settings; Write down the keystrokes you need to enter the bios, “load default values >> save and exit”

For example:

On the ADLQM67PC:

F7 (enters bios)

>> F5>>F6>>’Enter’>>’Y’>>’Enter’

(system should reboot at this point with VGA output enabled)

On the ADLS15PC: Delete (enters bios)

>> right arrow>> right arrow>> right arrow

>> down arrow>> down arrow >> ‘Y’>> ‘Enter’ >> “Enter”>>”y””>>’Enter’

(system should reboot at this point with VGA output enabled)

Contact: support@adl-usa.com

AT power scheme is the original power scheme that most of the older computers used. AT-style computer cases had a power button that is directly connected to the system computer power supply. Pushing the power button kills all the power instantly (whether the Operating System is ready for it or not!)

An ATX power supply is typically controlled by an electronic switch. Instead of a hard switch at the main power input, the power button on an ATX system is a sensor input monitored by the computer. ATX systems allow the Operating System to control the final “off” signal to the power supply; this gives the OS time to save all information and complete important tasks before turning off the power supply using a dedicated output signal (PS_ON#). ATX power supplies also support lower power modes. They have an additional “Standby” power output (5V_SB) that stays on to power standby devices whenever the system goes into low-power mode.

The ATX specification is the newer and more power efficient design. It is superior to the AT power supply scheme, and is used on almost all modern desktop and laptop computers. ADL Embedded Solutions offers PC/104 power supplies that support the ATX power scheme with 5V, 12V and 5V_SB outputs only. Although the full ATX specification has additional voltages (12V, -5V and 3.3V), these extra power inputs are intended for Desktop systems; most embedded systems have no use for these extra voltage inputs and so they are omitted to save power and space.

Yes, but some systems may require a hardware modification to accomplish this. Please refer to the chart below or contact your Sales rep for additional information:

The ADL945PC does not have an independent Suspend power input, so it cannot fully support the ATX power scheme without external hardware. For customer that require an ATX-style power shutoff, ADL Embedded Solutions has an app note (Power Switch Implementation) that describes how to build this circuit. Note, the app note is only a starting point for customer designs. ADL Embedded Solutions does not sell an adapter board with this circuitry, and cannot assist users in the building or debugging this circuit.

Although the power button input can be used to shut-down the computer, a complete shutdown of the system is not possible without an ATX style power supply and full ACPI support in the CPU board. The power button can signal the Operating System to initiate a software shut-down, but there is no way to turn off the main power (no PS_ON# output).

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Most Major Linux Distributions can be installed on our CPU boards using default installation values and generic Linux drivers, but we have no specific support for any Linux distributions or installation process. ADL Embedded Solutions has no Linux drivers or respositories, and no suport for any Linux based software. As a routine part of any new board development, our verification engineers ensure that popular Linux distributions like Ubuntu, CENTOS and Fedora install properly but no support is provided beyond this.

Please refer to our GPIO Technical Note.

Newer generation boards (ADLGS45, ADLD25PC, ADLN2000PC, ADLQM67XX and ADLQM87XX incorporate a BIOS-API for access to hardware monitoring and watchdog timer functionality. Legacy boards like ADLX8PC, ADL855PC, ADL945PC and ADLS15PC can access fan info., temperature data, and watchdog functionality via the on-board WinBond Super I/O controller. Contact support@adl-usa.com for details.