Black Box IC160A Prospecto

2 of 2

9/14/2007
#22574

724-746-5500

   blackbox.com

Attach a USB Director to a PC or server and give yourself

two extra high-speed RS-422/485 ports or four RS-422 ports.
These stackable expansion modules connect to the server or
PC via a Type A Universal Serial Bus (USB) port, enabling you
to add either two or four high-speed serial ports in seconds.

Offering 12-Mbps bandwidth, the USB Director can be

used to consolidate low- and medium-speed PC desktop
peripherals. It’s also ideal for adding printers, video-editing
equipment, and point-of-sale and industrial-control devices
that use a standard serial interface.

You never need to open the chassis or power down your

PC or server to install the USB Director. To get the extra 2 
or 4 ports, just plug the hub in using the included USB cable.
The cable’s flat end goes into your PC’s USB port or into an
available USB port on a standard USB hub, and the D-shaped
end plugs into the USB Director.

Both hub versions have a two-position DIP switch for

connecting the signal ground to chassis ground. The IC160A
hub, which supports both RS-422 and RS-485, also has two sets
of eight-position DIP switches for setting echo, full- or half-
duplex, and terminator options for its two serial ports.

The simple setup of the USB Director also includes

installing the included configuration software, which walks
you through the installation, and you’re done—no card lots,
IRQ addresses, DMA channels, or device addresses to deal
with. The hub autodetects speeds and connections of devices
while offering plug-and-play capability with peripherals. And
power is derived from the USB port, so there are no batteries
or power adapters to deal with, either.

The USB Director comes with drivers for use in Windows

®

98, Windows 2000, Windows Me, and Windows XP
environments. If you need to use the hub with a Windows NT

®

4.0 system, call Black Box Tech Support. 

You can manage various USB Director resources via the

port manager utility.exe program file, found in the Windows
System directory. Use the utility, for instance, to check the
mapping of each physical communications port to the
Windows COM-port numbers and give your USB Director a
user-friendly name, which is particularly helpful if you want 
to install more than one USB Director hub.

LEDs alert you to the loss of USB communication with the

host; signify serial-port activity; and indicate that the serial
ports have been successfully set up and the USB Director 
Hub is operating normally.

Universal Serial Bus is a royalty-free bus specification

developed by leading manufacturers in the PC and telephony
industries to support plug-and-play peripheral connections.
USB offers increased bandwidth, isochronous and
asynchronous data transfers, and lower costs than
conventional I/O ports.

The USB bus is a daisychain consisting of USB hubs and

peripherals less than 5 meters (16.4 ft.) apart. The USB
daisychain can support up to 127 devices. Instead of opening
up the CPU to insert new boards, make all connections outside
the case to the USB ports.

Because USB connections are hot-swappable, you can

attach or remove peripherals without shutting down your
computer. Also, USB hubs have additional ports that enable
you to daisychain multiple devices together. More than 450
leading manufacturers of PCs, peripherals, and software
support USB.

Compliance — EN 55022 Class B, EN 50082-1, EN 60950, CSA 22.2 No. 950,

FCC Part 15, UL

®

1950

Distance (Maximum) — 15 ft. (4.5 m)
System Requirements — Pentium

®

class CPU; 16 MB RAM; 

(1) unused USB port; Windows 98 or higher

Connectors — IC160A: (2) DB9 M, (1) Type B USB;

IC161A: (4) DB9 M, (1) Type B USB

Indicators — (1) System Status LED
Temperature Tolerance — Operating: 32 to 104°F (0 to 40°C)
Humidity Tolerance — 5 to 95%
Power — Derived from the USB port
Size — 5.6"H x 3"W x 1"D (14.2 x 7.6 x 2.5 cm)
Weight — 2.5 lb. (1.1 kg)

USB Director

USB

↔RS-422/485, 2-Port

USB

↔RS-422, 4-Port

USB Cable, 3-ft. (0.9-m)

USB Data-Line Protectors

Series A

Series B

✦

USB Director hub

✦

3-ft. USB cable

✦

Software driver diskette for Windows 98, 
Windows 2000, Windows Me, and Windows XP.

✦

Users’ manual