Protect Your Assets With Optical Isolators and Surge Protectors

Protect Your Assets With Optical Isolators and Surge Protectors

The world of data communication is busy, even noisy. Industrial communication systems, such as balanced RS-485 / RS-422, often require transmission between multiple devices over long distances. While having many devices communicating with each other on the same twisted-pair cable is robust and cost-effective, it also introduces two major challenges: 1) because of the long distances and the surrounding electrical devices/equipment, RS-485 / RS-422 networks are often exposed to electrical noises, remote lightning, and line surges, which can cause transient voltage to run across the serial communication system and the valuable equipment; 2) because multiple devices (nodes) are connected, the ground potential at different nodes could be different, which can cause ground currents to flow through "the path of least resistance" via either the common earth ground or the ground wire. Both voltage and current surges can cause serious damage to valuable, mission-critical equipment such as computers, PLCs, and industrial manufacturing and data processing equipment; these surges can even endanger human lives. Ground loop problems also exist on unbalanced signals that rely on the ground pin being zero volts, such as RS-232 and USB. Optical Isolators and Surge Protectors are the solutions to these problems.