FAQ

Hardware

• How many boards can I fit into a single stack?

  The PC/104 specification allows for up to 4 I/O boards in a single stack. PCI-to-PCI bridge cards can be installed to allow the addition of extra ISA or PCI boards. The total number of I/O cards will ultimately be determined by the current consumption and I/O bandwidth for all the cards combined. Please contact your sales rep for additional information on the limitations for specific boards and system busses.

• What’s the difference between a Heat Sink and a Heat Spreader?

  

  A heat sink is a traditional cooling solution that maximizes the surface area (using fins or pins) and airflow (using fans) to dissipate heat from the processor out into the surrounding air. Heat sinks with built in cooling fans are a simple, lightweight, and completely self-contained cooling solution. Depending on the available airflow they can often out-perform a similar sized heat-spreader.

  Heat spreaders have a large, flat surface on top. They have no fan and no fins. Instead of cooling by forced air, the spreader is pressed directly up against another large flat surface (for example: the frame of a vehicle or the inside wall of a sealed container) and heat is allowed to pass from the small heat spreader out to the larger metal surface. Heat spreaders do not cool the CPU by themselves, they only transfer the heat to another object where it can safely dissipate away from the processor. Heat spreaders are ideal for systems that expect to operate under extreme shock and vibration, or systems that need to be completely sealed inside a container to protect it from the environment.

  Fig 1) Identical CPU boards using a heatsink (left) and heat spreader (right).

• What is the expected life of the CMOS Battery?

  ADL Embedded Solutions CMOS batteries (p/n 100-9655) are based on a 3.6V Lithium Thionyl Chloride battery, with a 100k ohm, 5%, ¼W, current limiting resistor installed to protect battery life. The resistor provides a voltage drop for a 10uA or smaller load so that the 3.6V potential does not produce excessive on-state current. Current does flow from the battery in the ON state. It is significantly less with the resistor. If no resistor was used, damage to the circuitry could occur, and the battery drain in the ON state would exceed that in the OFF state.

  Most modern chipsets can keep the RTC running with less than 10uA of current from the battery, with 6uA being a typical requirement. Using the 1.20Ah rating of the battery, the life expectancy would be 1.2A/6uA = 200,000 hours, or about 22 years at +20°C. Considering that the self-discharge of the battery is <1% per year at +20°C, it is reasonable to expect that the useful life of the battery is indeed, >10 years. For serviceable applications, we suggest a 5 year service interval, in general. Regardless of the ideal time interval or operating conditions, CMOS batteries sold by ADL Embedded Solutions are mass produced and not rechargeable. ADL Embedded Solutions recommends that all developers include connectors and/or clips in their system design so that their CMOS battery can be easily replaced in the field.

• How do I implement the LAN activity LED on the ADLGS45PC?

  The LED configuration for the GS45 LAN ports are based on the diagrams in the Intel 82579 User’s manual. (see the link below). The reference diagram is on page 239 of this manual.

  http://www.intel.com/content/dam/doc/datasheet/82579-gbe-phy-datasheet-vol-2-1.pdf

  There is a 300-ohm current limiting resistor in the reference diagram. The ADLGS45PC has a built-in 330-ohm resistor for both the SPEED100 and LINKACT signal lines. For those 2 LAN indicators, it’s possible to just wire in the appropriate LED to the signal pin at one end, and the other end to the 3.3V power at pin12 and you’re done.

  The SPEED1000 LED (pin 7) does NOT have the 330-ohm inline resistor, and this is different from the other two signals (I’m not sure why). If you plan on using that LAN LED, you may need to add one in your design.

• It’s not booting! What should I do?

  Please refer to our trouble shooting guide.

• My ADL Embedded Solutions SBC will not boot up. When I turn it on there is no display or keyboard, but I can see a flashing YELLOW LED on the board. What could be the problem?

  The ADL Embedded Solutions SBC’s ADLS15PC, ADLGS45PC, ADLD25PC, ADL2000PC, ADLQM67PC, ADLQM87PC, and ADLE3800PC, employ a power management PIC that monitors and controls the gating of supply power into the SBC. This Power Management PIC includes a status LED that can provide some indication as to the condition of the system power as it pertains to the SBC. The following colors / conditions are defined for specific (and non-specific) board states. The following table describes some of the status LED states:

  Status Codes RGB LED:

  Color	Interval	Meaning
  none	solid	Invalid system state
  White	solid	The microcontroller has just been flashed and is being prepared for normal operation after reboot
  Cyan	solid	Reserved
  Magenta	solid	Reserved
  Blue	solid	Reserved
  Yellow	solid	Reserved
  Green	solid	Board operates normal
  Red	solid	Board is in Reset
  Green/Yellow	flashing	Bootloader operates normal
  Red	flashing	Firmware is being started (start sequence still running)
  Red/Yellow	flashing	Bootloader is being started (start sequence still running)
  Red/Magenta	flashing	Checksum error during I2C transmission in bootloader
  Red/Blue	flashing	Update completed, waiting for manual Reset
  Yellow	flashing (10s)	S5 state
  Yellow	flashing (6s)	S4 state
  Yellow	flashing (3s)	Reserved
  Yellow	flashing (0.5s)	Reserved

  There may also be variations that are not covered by the table above.

  In most cases, any RED LED means that there is an issue with the supply power. The status LED turns RED when the PIC is in RESET.

  Reset is caused by the following:

  • Source power has been asserted: PIC will go into reset at first power up to keep unstable power from entering the SBC. Once stable power it detected, it will gate the supply power into the board to allow it to boot.
  • Flashing red: Power has been asserted and the Status LED flashes Red. There is an undervoltage/undercurrent condition that is perhaps caused by an undersized power supply, undersized wire gauge or not all supply power pins are being used.
  • Solid Red: Overvoltage / Overcurrent or catastrophic error in the PIC, possibly due to an abnormal power event.

   

  A yellow LED typically indicates standby or sleep states, however there are also undefined states not covered by the table above. These types of conditions can be caused by abnormal power events can happen infrequently. For the defined YELLOW states above, using the board momentary switch will return the board to normal operation. For the reserved states, or other undefined YELLOW LED conditions, it may be necessary to remove all power from the SBC including the CMOS battery, to clear out any erroneous data inside the PIC.

  For any occurrence not described please contact ADL Embedded Solutions Technical Support for more in-depth troubleshooting.

• How can I reset the Video monitor in the BIOS? (blind BIOS reset).

  The most common reason video monitors go blank is because users change video settings in the BIOS before they understand how it changes the Video output.

  • VGA Monitors must be plugged in before the system boots. The VGA monitors are detected like any other plug-and-play device, so if the BIOS does not detect the monitor during the first strart up, the BIOS may skip over it and set another video output as the “default” video display.
  • For a stock BIOS, the default video display will always be VGA. Always confirm the VGA video output is properly connected and working before you change any video settings in the BIOS.
  • When setting up an LCD or LVDS we recommend setting BIOS outputs to ”dual” or “clone” mode, and work with two monitor outputs. Don’t disable the VGA output until you are sure both displays are working properly.
  • Before changing any Video BIOS settings; Write down the keystrokes you need to enter the bios, “load default values >> save and exit”

   

  For example:

  On the ADLQM67PC:

  F7 (enters bios)

  >> F5>>F6>>’Enter’>>’Y’>>’Enter’

  (system should reboot at this point with VGA output enabled)

  On the ADLS15PC: Delete (enters bios)

  >> right arrow>> right arrow>> right arrow

  >> down arrow>> down arrow >> ‘Y’>> ‘Enter’ >> “Enter”>>”y””>>’Enter’

  (system should reboot at this point with VGA output enabled)

• I need to update the BIOS. How do I do that?

  Contact: support@adl-europe.com