Product Description:

The 5A1104.00-090 is an expansion board produced by B & R Automation for the 5A1 PLC Addon Boards series. The card mounts inside an industrial PC that hosts the company’s PLC runtime and provides a direct PROFIBUS interface to that controller. By adding dedicated memory and protocol-handling hardware, the module lets the automation task exchange cyclic status words and acyclic parameter data with distributed drives, I/O blocks, and sensors without loading the main CPU.

Mechanical and electrical integration follow the ISA bus standard, and the board communicates through a 16-bit data path so word-level transfers complete in one cycle of the host backplane. Firmware access starts at the D000h BIOS base address, which prevents overlap with video or disk controller ranges and simplifies system resource planning. For fast handshake with the CPU, a 32 KB dual-port RAM segment serves as a mailbox; both the PLC task and the network processor can read or write this shared memory without arbitration delays. Field communication itself runs in PROFIBUS FDL mode, giving the controller access to cyclic and acyclic telegrams that comply with Class 1 master requirements.

During installation the technician selects the logical node by turning two hex address switches; the pair offers 2 Hex Switches of resolution, and the factory default of SW1 0; SW2 D positions the board at a high memory page. Two independent RJ45 connectors permit redundant cabling, and their presence is highlighted by 2 Network Connectors, which allow daisy-chain or line topologies without external T-pieces. The PCB occupies a Full-Size ISA slot, so chassis clearance must equal a classic AT board when planning enclosure depth. If a single card is used, jumpers BR1 and BR2 are left open to keep the backplane termination inactive; that hardware option finalizes resource allocation without software intervention.