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Section 2 - Introduction
The status indicator light illuminates when the unit's power is turned on.
When you first turn power on, the light turns green for just a few sec-
onds. The light then turns red, and stays red as long as the sensor is
searching for a beacon. Once the sensor has locked onto a beacon, the
light will then turn green.
Another function of the status indicator light is flashing red/green. The
light will only flash red/green if the beacon antenna (not GPS) is open or
shorted. Check your antenna or antenna wiring to determine the prob-
lem, if you see the flashing red/green light. Once the problem has been
fixed, the light will turn red for as long as several minutes, while the sen-
sor searches for a beacon. The light will return to green once it has locked
onto a beacon.
The status indicator light in the 8800 and 8900 sensors refers to beacon
status, not GPS status.
You can interface Northstar position sensors to a wide variety of external
2.1.6 Interfacing
devices, such as navigators, computers, yield monitors, and so on. These
external devices, or host systems, receive and process the data from the
sensor, and in some applications, may control the sensor.
Each sensor has two, full-duplex serial I/O ports that may be connected to
a host system in a variety of ways and for different applications. The func-
tion of each I/O port is determined by a Programmed Array Logic (PAL)
chip that acts as a matrix switch, which can configure the I/O port to sev-
eral configurations.
All three sensors use identical I/O hardware and circuitry, configured for
specific applications by jumper options controlling the PAL chip. Any one
of the eight standard configurations (see Section 8, "Input/Output Config-
urations" for a complete list of standard configurations) is selectable from
combinations of three jumper pins located on the 25-pin data/power con-
nector.
The standard, recommended configuration for each sensor described in
this manual is further described in its corresponding Northstar Installa-
tion Manual. Custom configurations also may be available for large quan-
tities of sensors as special orders.
05/01/97 REV H
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