The Quartz Parallel Interface is used to provide interfaces between Quartz routers and equipment requiring parallel rather than serial control e.g. Edit Controllers and custom control panels. The interface is a compact 1RU high 19" rack-mountable unit.
There are two models available supporting four or eight panel ports. The PI-1604A supports four ports and the PI-1608A eight. These units include a serial port as standard and optionally, on the PI-1608A, a second Q-Link and a second serial port.
A typical application of the Parallel Interface is to connect to custom control panels. All Quartz systems use serial communications between the matrix frames and the control panels via a single standard video coaxial cable, called the Q-Link. However, there are times when the standard panels will not fit into a desk or the buttons must be integrated into a common panel with the controls of third party equipment. The Quartz Parallel Interface is designed to meet this requirement.
The other main application offers a low cost solution where several panels are needed in the same area. Here, variants of the front panels of standard panels CP-1601A and CP-1604 are used without their normal cases. They are connected to the Parallel Interface by multi-core or ribbon cable. This is especially useful in situations where space behind the panel mounting surface is strictly limited, for instance in horizontal desks where a standard panel limits knee room.
Each port has 16 lines with read/write capability. Each line can read a button push and/or drive a lamp or LED wired to the button in the traditional button-per-source fashion. Each port also carries power for illumination. Alternatively an external source of power may be used.
Routers
