RS-232 Serial- The RS-232 Serial layer is used to communicate over the RS-232 serial hardware specification. A standard UART is used to drive the signal. [details...]

RS-485 Serial- The RS-485 Serial layer is used to communicate over the RS-485 serial hardware specification. A standard UART is used to drive the signal. [details...]

Bus- The Bus layer is used for connecting the Tower to the Media Lab's Cricket system. With eight bus connectors for convenience, this layer can be used to drive the vast array of Cricket system bus devices, or to allow the Tower itself to become a bus device and reduce the overhead traditionally associated with designing new devices for the Cricket system. [details...]

I2C- The I2C breakout layer allows for communication with off-stack Tower layers such as the Tricolor led, as well as inter-Tower communication. Using standard 4-wire bus cables, this layer can also be used to easily prototype new Tower layers on solderless breadboards. [details...]

USART- The USART layer is a serial breakout layer for distributing four USART signals for inter-tower communicaiton as well as connection to a host machine. Each of the four ports has both a 3-wire null-modem connector, as well as the 4-pin connector for the RS-232 Serial board, as applications dictate. [details...]

IR- The IR communication layer is useful for establishing short-range infrared wireless links when a direct line-of-sight is available. [details...]

RF- The RF communication layer is useful for mid-range radio-frequency communication and when line-of-sight is not available. [details...]

MIDI- The MIDI communication layer can be used to drive MIDI-based devices such as standard audio/visual output devices. [details...]

USB- The USB communication layer can be used to communicate with USB devices, as well as for connecting to a USB port on a computer for programming and tethered communications. [details...]

Ethernet- The Ethernet layer is capable of driving ethernet-based communications through an industry-standard RJ-45 connector. [details...]

802.11b- The 802.11b layer can be used to establish wireless network connectivity. By allowing Tower nodes to act not only as network points, but also as repeaters, it is possible to establish wide-ranging local area networks. [details...]