TIDA-010035

This reference design establishes a simulation model for implementing RS-485 communication over power cabling. This simulation model can be used to assess the feasibility of implementing RS485 communication at a given data rate, cable length, and loading for a specific cable before taking the time-consuming step of building a representative network. A procedure is given for developing a cable model for any given cable and replacing the cable model in the simulation.

A new preferred approach by using On-off key modulation to transmit RS-485 signals over power line is achieved with THVD8000. By integrating modulation and demodulation circuits, the THVD8000 can increase the frequency content of the baseband data being transmitted. This enables easier DC and AC coupling and system-side interfaces to standard universal asynchronous receivers-transmitters (typically used for RS-485) without any need for special encoding, which is useful in low-data-rate applications. This upgraded approach works well for both DC and AC power without any need for special coding in a microcontroller.

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