Hey guys, I have a micro board, and need to use the usb communications to a computer. However I want the micro to be completely electrically isolated from the pc. So I want to decouple using a fiberoptic transceiver. Have any of you ever done this? Also I need a very small form factor. Just need something to point me in the right direction. Thanks.
I haven't done exactly that but have designed fiber optic modems.
I used HFBR1414Z as the transmitter and a HFBR2412Z as the receiver.
You obviously need 2 each of the above for RX &TX.
You can start by looking at the data sheets pages 11, 13 and 19
victorb17:
Hey guys, I have a micro board, and need to use the usb communications to a computer. However I want the micro to be completely electrically isolated from the pc. So I want to decouple using a fiberoptic transceiver. Have any of you ever done this? Also I need a very small form factor. Just need something to point me in the right direction. Thanks.
There is another way to isolate that by using a isolating USB device. Many different makers of these things.
This one has the advantage of being able to pass 400 ma of 5 volt power to the remote device which fiber optic cannot provide.
Lefty
It occurs to me another way to optically isolate the Arduino from the PC would be to use a bluetooth or wifi radio device.
One way to use fiber is to use it as a network device. Recently, I was curious and did a google search, and saw you could get low end ethernet->fiber converters for about $50 each. Couple that with an ethernet shield should get you the connection.
The post BlinkIt in the exhibition gallery shows another way to communicate: BlinkIT - #4 by MichaelMeissner - Exhibition / Gallery - Arduino Forum, and presumably you could use it via a fiber optic cable if you could put a light sensor on the PC.
Hey, thanks for the ideas about wireless. I am doing this design work for someone else though, and the specs are usb to the pc. I have seen a very small (<1") fiber optic transceiver in another setup. two components were connected by a single fiber. I will try to find the part number on the existing system I saw. This is new territory for me... 