Description
DS3800HSDDIEIF Product Overview
The DS3800HSDDIEIF is a high-speed data-distribution board that resides in GE Mark IV turbine and EX2000 exciter control racks. It occupies a mid-rack slot on the 6BA Euro-card file and acts as a signal highway: it buffers address/data lines between the main CPU (NDIA bus) and the high-density I/O daughter-cards, while isolating the 5 V processor from the 480 V class power electronics. Because all copper traces are fully encapsulated in high-temperature epoxy, the board is treated as a line-replaceable module—any internal fault requires a complete card swap rather than component-level rework. The dual 40-pin back-plane connectors make installation straightforward: rack the old card, seat the new one until both extractors click, and the CPU re-acquires the I/O map on the next scan—no software download or calibration required.
The DS3800HSDDIEIF is a high-speed data-distribution board that resides in GE Mark IV turbine and EX2000 exciter control racks. It occupies a mid-rack slot on the 6BA Euro-card file and acts as a signal highway: it buffers address/data lines between the main CPU (NDIA bus) and the high-density I/O daughter-cards, while isolating the 5 V processor from the 480 V class power electronics. Because all copper traces are fully encapsulated in high-temperature epoxy, the board is treated as a line-replaceable module—any internal fault requires a complete card swap rather than component-level rework. The dual 40-pin back-plane connectors make installation straightforward: rack the old card, seat the new one until both extractors click, and the CPU re-acquires the I/O map on the next scan—no software download or calibration required.
GE DS3800NFMC1F
DS3800HSDDIEIF Technical Specifications
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Model Number: DS3800HSDDIEIF
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Manufacturer: General Electric
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Product Type: High-Speed Data Distribution / Signal Buffer Board
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Series: DS3800, Mark IV Speedtronic
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Form Factor: 6BA Euro-card (≈ 233 × 160 mm)
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Back-Plane Connector: Dual 40-pin header (J1/J2)
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Logic Levels: 5 V CMOS/TTL; 6-layer PCB for controlled impedance
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Isolation: 500 V channel-to-ground; opto-coupled digital lines
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Power Demand: +5 V @ 1.2 A, +15 V @ 0.3 A from rack 2PL bus
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Operating Temperature: 0 – 60 °C (board rating)
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Storage Temperature: -40 – 80 °C
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Weight: ≈ 0.22 kg
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Construction: Epoxy-sealed copper traces—non-repairable
Core Features & Customer Value
High-Speed Signal Integrity: The 6-layer board uses controlled-impedance traces to maintain <1 ns skew across the 40-pin bus. For the control engineer this means the CPU can sample bridge feedback at 2 ms intervals without data corruption, ensuring the fuel-valve or exciter loop remains stable even during rapid load changes.
Epoxy-Sealed Construction: All internal copper is encapsulated in high-temperature epoxy. In environments with high humidity, dust, or conductive contamination the seal prevents trace-to-trace shorting that would otherwise cause random “DATA FAULT” alarms after ten-plus years of service. The trade-off is non-repairability—any internal fault requires a whole-card exchange—but this is offset by the reduced troubleshooting time and the fact that plants stock one spare instead of maintaining a repair bench.
Plug-and-Play Euro-Card Footprint: The 6BA form-factor slides straight into the existing Mark IV card file—no mounting brackets or external cabling required. For maintenance crews this translates to a three-minute replacement instead of a half-shift re-cabling job.
GE DS3800NFMC1F
Typical Applications
In combined-cycle power plants the board is installed in the Mark IV turbine control core where it provides the high-speed data link between the CPU and the remote I/O pods that monitor exhaust temperatures and compressor discharge pressure. The on-board opto-isolators keep 480 V switching transients from walking into the 5 V processor data bus.
On utility-scale EX2000 static exciters the same card is used to buffer the diode-fail contacts and the field ground-detector relay. Because the inputs are group-isolated, a shorted contactor coil will not drag down the entire digital I/O rack.
Frequently the same part number is used on mechanical-drive gas compressors to expand the count of inlet-guide-vane limit switches beyond the base CPU capacity. Its ability to mix dry contacts and analog millivolt signals on one card makes it a universal “data highway extender” for any Mark IV loop that needs more field points.
