ADLINK PXES-2785 18 Slot Gen3 Chassis Deployment and Maintenance Guide

ADLINK PXES-2785 18 Slot Gen3 PXIe Chassis Deployment and Maintenance Guide

In high-end multi-channel testing systems, slot capacity, power supply, and system bandwidth often determine the overall upper limit of the platform. ADLINK PXES-2785 is an 18 slot PXI Express chassis based on PCIe Gen3 technology, providing 1 system slot, 1 system timing slot, 6 hybrid peripheral slots, and 10 PXIe dedicated peripheral slots. The total system bandwidth is up to 24 GB/s (2-link x8 x16 Gen3), and all peripheral slots support PCIe x8 Gen3 links. The single slot bandwidth can reach 8 GB/s, providing sufficient bandwidth guarantee for high-throughput data acquisition and real-time processing. The chassis adopts a modular and maintainable design, and the power module and fan can be replaced on site, significantly reducing the mean time to repair (MTTR). Industrial grade AC power supply can output up to 1170 W (200~240 VAC input) below 45 ° C, and can still output 990 W at 55 ° C. Each slot has a maximum cooling capacity of 82 W, and is equipped with Normal/Boost dual-mode intelligent fan control to meet the cooling needs of different power consumption modules. In addition, the chassis provides BNC 10 MHz reference clock input/output, software configurable three-stage trigger bus bridging, remote management LAN ports, and suppression/voltage monitoring DB-9 interface, and supports remote status monitoring through SMBus or Ethernet.

Overview of chassis and core technical specifications

PXES-2785 fully complies with the PXI-5 Rev. 1.1 specification and is compatible with PXI Express, CompactPCI Express, and hybrid slot compatible PXI-1/CompactPCI modules. The allocation of 18 slots is as follows:

Slot 1: System controller slot, supporting a maximum of 4 slot width controllers, using 2-link x8 x16 Gen3 uplink, with a total bandwidth of 24 GB/s;

Slot 10: System Timing Slot (ST), providing single ended star triggering (PXI_STAR) and 3 pairs of differential star triggering (PXIe-DSTAR), and can also be used as a regular PXIe x8 peripheral slot;

Slot 7、 8. 9, 11, 12, 13: 6 hybrid peripheral slots, compatible with PXI-1/CPCI/PXIE/CPCIe, all supporting PCIe x8 Gen3;

Slot 2~6, Slot 14~18:10 dedicated PXIe peripheral slots, only supporting PXIe/CPCIe modules, also supporting x8 Gen3.

Power parameters (the key difference lies in the variation of output power with input voltage and ambient temperature):

Communication input: 100-240 VAC, 50-60 Hz, maximum input power of 1300 W, equipped with 16A resettable circuit breaker;

DC output (maximum total power):

0~45 ° C environment: 1170 W for 200~240 VAC input, 1000 W for 100~120 VAC input;

45~55 ° C environment: 990 W for 200~240 VAC input, 790 W for 100~120 VAC input;

The maximum total current of each voltage rail is+12V/72A,+3.3V/77A,+5V/20A, -12V/4A,+5Vaux/4A, with a load adjustment rate of ± 5%.

Reference clock:

10 MHz (PXI_CLK10): inter slot skew ≤ 280 ps, accuracy ± 1 ppm, jitter 0.44 ps RMS;

100 MHz differential (PXIE_CK100): inter slot skew ≤ 100 ps, accuracy ± 1 ppm, jitter 2.41 ps RMS;

External 10 MHz BNC input: requires 10 MHz ± 25 PPM (more stringent than PXES-2780's ± 100 PPM), amplitude of 100 mVpp~5 Vpp, and high impedance input; BNC output amplitude 1 Vpp (50 Ω load) or 2 Vpp no-load, output impedance 50 Ω± 5 Ω.

Mechanical and Environmental: Dimensions 457.4 (W) × 194.8 (H) × 480.5 (D) mm, net weight 11.9 kg; operating temperature 0~55 ° C, storage -20~70 ° C; shock resistance 30 G half sine, vibration working 0.3 Grms; Noise Normal Auto mode 40.9 dBA, Boost High mode 69.2 dBA.

Key points of installation and heat dissipation engineering

2.1 Unboxing and Attachment Confirmation

The standard packaging includes the PXES-2785 chassis, power cord (US/EU), and filler panel kit (1 3-channel panel and 18 1-channel panels). Optional rack installation kit (part number 3.91-95126-0010, compatible with PXES-2780). Check for transportation damage and contact the dealer immediately for any missing items.

2.2 Power Budget Calculation

The sum of power consumption of the computing system controller and all peripheral modules must simultaneously meet the following requirements:

The total power consumption shall not exceed the maximum DC output power at the corresponding input voltage and ambient temperature (see previous section);

The current of each voltage rail shall not exceed the limit of backplane slot allocation (Table 1-3): system slot+12V/30A,+3.3V/15A,+5V/15A; Mixing tank+12V/6A,+3.3V/9A,+5V/6A, etc.

2.3 Dual mode intelligent fan and cooling configuration

The PXES-2785 is equipped with three 220 CFM fans at the rear, with bottom intake and rear exhaust. There are two switches at the back of the chassis that work together to control heat dissipation:

Fan Mode Switch:

Normal: Suitable for modules with a power consumption of ≤ 38 W per slot, balancing heat dissipation and noise;

Boost: Suitable for modules with a power consumption of 38-82 W per slot, enhancing ventilation performance. If the ambient temperature exceeds 45 ° C, it must be set to Boost mode.

Fan Speed Switch:

Auto: Enable intelligent temperature control and automatically adjust the speed according to the temperature sensor;

High: Forced full speed operation, at which point the speed curve varies depending on the Normal or Boost mode.

Recommended configuration combination:

Recommended settings for cooling requirements and ambient temperature

All modules ≤ 38W/slot 0~55 ° C Normal+Auto

Any module 38~50W/slot 0~55 ° C Boost+Auto

Any module 50~82W/slot 0~45 ° C Boost+High

Maximum ventilation ≤ 45 ° C High (mode on-demand)

Key clearances: Rear air outlet ≥ 101.6 mm (4 inches), side ≥ 44.45 mm (1.75 inches), bottom ≥ 17 mm (0.67 inches). All empty slots must be equipped with filling panels, and if there are empty slots in the adjacent left and right slots of high-power modules (>50W), wind resistance modules must also be installed to maintain directional airflow.

2.4 Hardware installation steps

System controller installation (Slot 1, highlighted in red):

Ensure that the CPU, memory, and storage of the controller are installed completely;

Press the module to eject the latch and push it in along the upper and lower guide rails;

Lift the latch to engage and tighten the front panel screws.

Peripheral module installation (Slot 2~18): Similar operation, note that the PXI-1 module can be installed in the mixed slots (7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13), and the dedicated slots are only available for PXIe/CPCIe. Fill all empty slots after installation is complete.

Rack installation: remove the right handle and the left four rubber feet, fix the left and right mounting brackets with M4 screws (adjustable position), and then fix them with eight rack screws.

2.5 Power on and power-off

The chassis adopts C19 power inlet (16 A current capacity). Insert the power cord into the rear, press the front panel power button (if the Inhibit switch is in DEF mode), and the blue Power LED will light up. It is strictly prohibited to hot plug any module or cable, otherwise it may damage the device or cause data loss.

Backplane architecture and high-speed characteristics

3.1 PCIe Gen3 Link Capability

System slot to switch chip: 2-link x8 x16 Gen3, total bandwidth 24 GB/s;

All peripheral slots (including system timing slots when used as peripherals) independently support PCIe x8 Gen3, with a single slot bandwidth of 8 GB/s, and are not shared with each other. This design enables high-throughput modules such as multi-channel digitizers and vector signal transceivers to operate at full speed simultaneously.

3.2 Star Trigger (System Timing Slot 10)

Slot 10 provides one single ended star trigger (PXI_STAR) and three pairs of differential star triggers (PXIe-DSTAR A/B/C). The routing allocation is shown in Table 1-20 (for example, the PXI_STAR line in Slot 2 corresponds to number 7, Slot 3 corresponds to number 6, etc.). After installing a dedicated star trigger controller, precise synchronous triggering can be achieved. If this feature is not required, Slot 10 can be used as a regular x8 peripheral slot.

3.3 Three segment trigger bus and software bridging

18 slots are divided into three trigger bus segments:

Segment A: Plot 1-6

Segment B: Plot 7-12

Segment C: Slot 13-18

Each segment has 8 trigger lines, which are connected between segments through two bus buffers. Users can independently configure the bridging state of each trigger line through ChassisWatch or PXI-9 C++API, achieving 8 types of inter segment connection combinations and flexibly dividing trigger domains.

3.4 Priority of 10 MHz reference clock source

Automatic selection order:

Highest priority: PXI_CLK10-IN signal of system timing slot (Slot 10);

Secondary high: External 10 MHz clock input from the rear BNC;

Minimum: Built in oscillator on the backplane (accuracy ± 1 ppm).

When an external clock is present, the PLL automatically locks and synchronizes the 100 MHz differential clock to ensure that the entire chassis is in phase.

System monitoring and remote management

PXES-2785 provides two remote monitoring methods: SMBus (embedded controller through system slot) and Ethernet LAN port (rear RJ-45, default static IP 192.168.1.10/24). The ChassisWatch graphic tool supports two interfaces.

4.1 ChassisWatch Core Features

Status monitoring: Real time display of 8 backplane temperature sensors (T1~T8), 3 rear fan speeds, and all voltage rail readings;

Triggering bus routing: graphically configuring three-stage bus bridging, which can save/load templates;

Intelligent fan: target temperature setting (default 50 ° C, range 25~70 ° C), fan PWM curve similar to PXES-2780;

Threshold settings: adjustable voltage (default ± 5%), temperature (default 70 ° C), and fan speed (default 800 RPM);

Log and configuration: Record monitoring data, save/load threshold configurations.

4.2 Remote management of LAN web pages

Built in HTTP web service, no software installation required to access the chassis IP through a browser and view real-time voltage, temperature, and fan status. The IP settings (DHCP/static) can be modified in ChassisWatch. This feature greatly facilitates the monitoring needs of unmanned or remote laboratories.

4.3 Suppression/Voltage Monitoring DB-9 Interface

The rear DB-9 provides:

Voltage monitoring pins: 5VSB, 12V, 5V, 3.3V, -12V (each string has a 10k Ω current limiting resistor, which can be connected to a digital multimeter);

PWRGD: Normal power output;

Fault: 1Hz pulse indication over limit alarm;

INHIBIT #: Low effective remote power control pin (effective when the Inhibit switch is set to MAN, internal 1k Ω pull-up to 5VSB). Before use, the operating system of the system controller should be turned off normally, and then the pin should be pulled down.

Maintainability Design - On site Replacement of Power Modules

The power module of PXES-2785 is designed to be pluggable and supports on-site replacement, significantly reducing downtime. The replacement steps are as follows:

Shut down normally and unplug the AC power cord;

Remove the 8 fixing screws at the rear (as shown in the manual);

Grasp the two handles of the power module with both hands and carefully pull out the module;

Align the new power module with the internal guide rail and slide it in to ensure it is fully seated;

Reinstall the 8 screws, reconnect the AC power cord, and perform a power on test.

Before replacement, it is necessary to confirm that the new power module model is consistent (1300 W AC input, matching output specifications). Suggest ordering spare modules from the ADLINK sales window for future use.

Troubleshooting and Maintenance Guide

6.1 System cannot start

Check if the power cord is plugged into the C19 socket and if the circuit breaker has tripped (can be reset by pressing);

Confirm the position of the Inhibit switch: the front panel button under DEF is valid, and DB-9 INHIBIT # high level or floating is required under MAN;

Remove all peripheral modules and leave only the system controller for testing; If successful, insert the fault locating module block by block.

6.2 Abnormal LED indicator light

Red Fault LED flashing: Any parameter exceeds the threshold, and specific alarm items need to be checked in conjunction with ChassisWatch;

Blue Power LED flashing: voltage exceeding or short circuited. If it still flashes during no-load testing, it may indicate a power failure;

Green Fan LED flashing: If the fan speed is below 800 RPM, check if the rear fan is stuck or dusty;

Amber Temperature LED flashing: If the temperature exceeds 70 ° C, check the cooling gap, fill panel, and fan mode settings.

6.3 Remote management LAN cannot be accessed

Confirm that the network cable connection is normal and that the PC and chassis IP are on the same subnet (default 192.168.1. x.24);

Check if the LAN function is enabled in ChassisWatch and if the IP has not been modified;

If DHCP is required, it needs to be reconfigured through ChassisWatch.

6.4 Maintenance and Cleaning

Cleaning: After power off, wipe with a dry cloth, focusing on cleaning the bottom air inlet and rear air outlet;

Handling: Net weight 11.9 kg, use handle, pay attention to safety;

Power cord: Ensure that the cable is intact and avoid connecting to overload circuits.

Software Ecology

ADLINK PXI Platform Services (APPS) provides a complete driver stack:

ChassisWatch: graphic monitoring and configuration;

PXI Resource Manager: Automatically enumerate systems and generate description files;

PXI Trigger Management: triggers the bus routing API;

PXI Express Chassis Services: API compliant with PXI-6 specifications.

MAPS Core provides DAQ drivers and device management tools. All software can be downloaded from the official website.