Patent ID: 8287290

Claim:
A method of connecting an upgrade module to a machine monitoring system, said method comprising: providing a machine monitoring system having a first circuit board; providing an upgrade module for the machine monitoring system, said upgrade module comprising a second circuit board; providing an interface connector, wherein said interface connector is comprised of a casing and a plurality of electrically conductive connectors insulated from one another within the casing, each connector having a first end and a second end, wherein the first end connects to the first circuit board and the second end connects to the second circuit board, wherein said plurality of connectors form a first row and a second row, said first row comprised of evenly-numbered connectors and said second row comprised of odd-numbered connectors; configuring the interface connector to transmit signals between the first circuit board and the second circuit board for operation of the machine monitoring system, wherein said configuring comprises: connectors 1-4, 13-18, 43-61, 68-71, 77, 78, 79, 80, 84, 86, 92 and 94-120 provide electrical paths for general circuit connections between the first circuit board and the second circuit board; connectors 41, 42, 62-67, 72-75 and 81 provide electrical paths for host processor connections between the first circuit board and the second circuit board; and connectors 5-12, 19-40, 76, 82, 83, 85, 87-91 and 93 provide electrical paths for field programmable gate array (FPGA) connections between the first circuit board and the second circuit board; and connecting the first circuit board and the second circuit board using the configured interface connector.