What Factors Limit the RS-485 Data Rate?
The following factors affect how far one can reliably transmit at a given data rate:
- Cable length: At a given frequency, the signal is attenuated by the cable as a function of length.
- Cable construction: Cat5 24AWG twisted pair is a very common cable type used for RS-485 systems. Adding shielding to the cable enhances noise immunity, and thereby increases the data rate for a given distance.
- Cable characteristic impedance: Distributed capacitance and inductance slows edges, reducing noise margin and compromising the 'eye pattern'. Distributed resistance attenuates the signal level directly.
- Driver output impedance: If too high, this limits drive capability.
- Receiver input impedance: If too low, this limits the number of receivers that the driver can handle.
- Termination: A long cable can act like a transmission line. Terminating the cable with its characteristic impedance reduces reflections and increases the achievable data rate.
- Noise margin: Bigger is better.
- Slew rate of driver: Slower edges (lower slew rates) enable transmission over longer cable lengths.
Some Empirical Data
The most common cable for RS-485 systems: EIA/TIA/ANSI 568 Cat5 twisted pair.
The data rates obtained for cable lengths of different quality from 300feet to 900feet range from 1Mbps to 35Mbps
Consider all the above you can expect a product term for the speed limit on RS-485 100m*1Mbps = 100 m-Mbps.
Thus 100kbps will go 1000 m. You can get more with Cat6 cable but expensive. The reason is Cat6 is stiffer and more controlled impedance and less likely to have kinks which cause group delay distortion, which translates into jitter on the data edges for random patterns.
Termination load will depend on driver/cable but varies from 100 to 150 Ohms.. Fieldbus uses 54 Ohm single-ended or 108 differential.