Connecting Multiple Units

Dragonfly's are intended to be used alone or in groups. The wiring of the multi-unit configurations is simple, but has some variants mainly depending on the power supply used.

The picture below shows a 24 channel system with dc power. The master unit (source of synchronization) is on the right of the picture. LVDS cables should go from out on the master unit and into the in on the following unit, continuing out to in until the end of the chain. Power jumpers are in the image below but are not required, more information on how to power below.

The following two pictures show in a schematic form on how to wire up multiple Dragonfly units with both DC and POE power...

24 Channel system using POE power

24 Channel system using DC power

It should be noted that if a POE switch is being used that the Dragonfly units will automatically take power from the POE sourced in precedence to the dc power. When using POE for power, it is important to ground the POE source and to use shielded Ethernet cables.

Careful attention should be paid when plugging in fisher cables, although a connector can only fully seat in its correct slot, cases have been seen where the power cable can short the pens of the LVDS port, causing damage to the Dragonfly Card.