CueStation is available with three different control technology options.

Passive

Passive CueStations simply provide dry-contact switch closures for direct connection to devices that are expecting a contact closure to activate an event.  There is a single terminal for each switch plus an extra terminal which is the "switch common" on the back of the station.  For example, on a six button station, seven conductors would be needed (the six switches, plus one common).

The LED indicators on a Passive station are wired similarly.  Each LED has a single terminal on the back of the station, plus an additional terminal for the LED common.  By default, the LEDs are wired with all of the positive (+) leads tied together as the LED common and the negative (-) leads are all separately wired to the LED terminals.  This allows the LEDs to be controlled by a switched-to-ground connection for each LED.  The station includes LED current limiting resistors normally set up for 5VDC operation.  If you need a different LED polarity or operation voltage, please contact us.

The Passive CueStation is designed to be directly connected to the contact closure inputs and digital output ports of a CueServer processor, however, these stations can be used in a wide variety of custom applications as well.

Digital 2-Wire Network

The Digital 2-Wire Network type of CueStation was designed to provide the best combination of flexibility, simplcity and cost-effectiveness.  This technology uses a simple 2-wire network to connect the individual stations together that's both topology free and polarity free -- which means that any combination of home-run and daisy-chained connections can be made without regard to the polarity of the two conductors.

The 2-Wire button stations are controlled by the Universal CueStation Hub, which can power up to 10 individual 2-Wire stations, for a total of up to 80 buttons (and indicators).  For systems requiring more than 10 stations, additional Hubs can be used and/or a combination of the 4-Wire stations can be used.  The Hub can be connected to the host system by either RS-232 or Ethernet protocols (which are fully documented).

A unique feature of the LED indicators on a 2-Wire station are RGB type LEDs with the ability for each indicator to be individually set to any of 7 colors plus 4 brightnesses.

Digital 4-Wire Network

The Digital 4-Wire Network type of CueStation was designed to provide an increased number of stations on the same network with greater cable distances.  This technology uses a 4-wire network to connect the individual stations together in a daisy-chained topology.

The 2-Wire button stations are controlled by the Universal CueStation Hub, which can power up to 50 individual 4-Wire stations, for a total of up to 400 buttons (and indicators).  For systems requiring more than 50 stations, additional Hubs can be used and/or a combination of the 2-Wire stations can be used.  The Hub can be connected to the host system by either RS-232 or Ethernet protocols (which are fully documented).

Although the LED indicators on the 4-Wire stations are of the RGB type, dip switches on the back of the station are used to select the single color and brightness that all of the indicators on the station will illuminate when "turned on".  Although you still have control of the "on/off" status of each indicator, the color and brightness will be preset from the dip switch settings.