ITM announces its latest embedded digital I/O board packaged in a small, rugged, industrial enclosure—the Model USB-IIRO-16. Featuring 16 Form C (SPDT) electromechanical relays and 16 optically isolated digital inputs, the unit is a very dense, portable, embedded solution for digital monitoring and control in any PC or embedded system with a USB port. The unit contains an internal, removable screw termination board with onboard removable screw terminals to simplify wiring connections. The USB-IIRO-16, like the PC/104 and PCI versions from ACCES I/O, is excellent in applications where on-board relays are required and inputs must be isolated such as in test equipment, instrumentation, and process control. The OEM version provides just the board without the enclosure and internal screw termination board and is ideal for a variety of embedded OEM applications.
What makes the OEM option unique is that its PCB size and mounting holes match the PC/104 form factor (without the bus connections). This allows our rugged digital board to be added to any PCI-104 or PC/104 stack by connecting it to a simple USB port usually included on-board with embedded CPU form factors such as EBX, EPIC, and PC/104 — especially important since many newer CPU chipsets do not support ISA and have plenty of USB ports. Future stacks will be using the extremely fast PCI Express bus which is essentially overkill for simple digital monitoring and control. The USB-IIRO-16 OEM board can also be added into many pre-existing standard PC/104 based systems and enclosures while the standard unit with its tiny enclosure and cable-less screw termination board provides portable connections to laptops for the mobile test market.
Key features of the USB-IIRO-16 include:
High-speed USB 2.0 device, USB 1.1 compatible
16 optically isolated inputs
16 Form C electromechanical 1A relays
Internal, removable screw terminal board for easy wiring
Small (4" x 4"x 1.25") rugged industrial enclosure
Custom high-speed function driver
PC/104 module size and mounting compatibility
Eight input/output version (USB-IIRO-8) available
The industrial I/O market commonly uses electromechanical Form C relays due to their robustness and ability to withstand unexpected surge currents allowing for increased flexibility in switching capability. These relays are also used where small reed relays are inadequate due to their susceptibility to contact damage. The USB-IIRO-16 is fully compatible with both USB 1.1 and USB 2.0 ports. The unit is plug-and-play which allows quick connect or disconnect whenever you need additional I/O on your USB port. The module utilizes a high-speed custom function driver optimized for a maximum data throughput that is 50-100 times faster than the USB human interface device (HID) driver used by many competing products. This approach maximizes the full functionality of the hardware along with capitalizing the advantage of high-speed USB 2.0.
The USB-IIRO-16 is supported for use in most operating systems and includes a free Linux and Windows 98/2000/XP/2003 compatible software package. This package contains sample programs and source code in Visual Basic, Delphi, C++ Builder, and Visual C++ for Windows. Also incorporated is a graphical setup program in Windows. Third party support includes a Windows standard DLL interface usable from the most popular application programs. Embedded OS support includes Windows XPe. | 
