Serial - Ethernet converter request some details

[Daku]

Could some electronics guru provide some details on serial-Ethernet
converters.
1. What exactly is the conversion scheme ?
2. I googled quite a lot, but could only dig out details of one - one
converters i.e., one serial port - one Ethernet port.
3. How do I set up a network in which serial port output from several
devices can be transferred to a single PC, after conversion to
Ethernet format. That is, some sort of a multiplexer - do any such
devices exist ?
Any information, hints, suggestions would be of immense help. Thanks
in advance.

 

[Jasen Betts]

On 2010-11-30, Daku <dakupoto@gmail.com> wrote:

Could some electronics guru provide some details on serial-Ethernet
converters.
1. What exactly is the conversion scheme ?

usually a TCP host

software on the the pc opens a TCP/IP connection to the device
and sends and receives streams of characters over that connection.
the converter translates that to/from the serial port

2. I googled quite a lot, but could only dig out details of one - one
converters i.e., one serial port - one Ethernet port.

3. How do I set up a network in which serial port output from several
devices can be transferred to a single PC, after conversion to
Ethernet format. That is, some sort of a multiplexer - do any such
devices exist ?

It's called an ethernet switch (it is a very common piece of LAN hardware)
you may also need to setup a DHCP server (software) to organise the
collection of devices in a predictable way, or the may be a simple way
to give each one a static IP address.

--
⚂⚃ 100% natural

 

[1jam]

Daku wrote:

Could some electronics guru provide some details on serial-Ethernet
converters.
1. What exactly is the conversion scheme ?
2. I googled quite a lot, but could only dig out details of one - one
converters i.e., one serial port - one Ethernet port.

I think they generally present the serial data as a TCP stream. Or some use
UDP. Some also present an onboard webserver/site that can operate gpios,
adc, etc..

3. How do I set up a network in which serial port output from several
devices can be transferred to a single PC, after conversion to
Ethernet format. That is, some sort of a multiplexer - do any such
devices exist ?
Any information, hints, suggestions would be of immense help. Thanks
in advance.

I would think you'd need to write software on the PC side to make all the
TCP socket connections and read the data. Each device would have its own IP.
The 'multiplexing' is inherent in the ethernet & TCP/IP protocols
themselves. Netburner sells a 20$ module as I have described. never tried it
myself..

HTH

 

[Ecnerwal]

In article
<a728849a-0104-4264-80e4-5a4d020db1e6@r40g2000prh.googlegroups.com>,
Daku <dakupoto@gmail.com> wrote:

Could some electronics guru provide some details on serial-Ethernet
converters.
1. What exactly is the conversion scheme ?
2. I googled quite a lot, but could only dig out details of one - one
converters i.e., one serial port - one Ethernet port.
3. How do I set up a network in which serial port output from several
devices can be transferred to a single PC, after conversion to
Ethernet format. That is, some sort of a multiplexer - do any such
devices exist ?
Any information, hints, suggestions would be of immense help. Thanks
in advance.

Try B&B electronics (if you are just looking to buy one.) Just a happy
customer...they probably are not the cheapest source, but cheap counts
both ways in that observation. The stuff I have bought from them works
reliably.

http://www.bb-elec.com/

--
Cats, coffee, chocolate...vices to live by

 

[Daku]

I have also learnt in the meanwhile that there is a device called
'serial concentrator' that accepts several serial port inputs,
multiplexes them and sends them over an Ethernet cable to a PC. Thanks
for the feedback - I will check out each of them.

On Nov 30, 1:14 pm, Jasen Betts <ja...@xnet.co.nz> wrote:

usually a TCP host

software on the the pc opens a TCP/IP connection to the device
and sends and receives streams of characters over that connection.
the converter translates that to/from the serial port

It's called an ethernet switch (it is a very common piece of LAN hardware)
you may also need to setup a DHCP server (software) to organise the
collection of devices in a predictable way, or the may be a simple way
to give each one a static IP address.

--
⚂⚃ 100% natural

 

[Rich Webb]

On Mon, 29 Nov 2010 19:53:32 -0800 (PST), Daku <dakupoto@gmail.com>
wrote:

Could some electronics guru provide some details on serial-Ethernet
converters.
1. What exactly is the conversion scheme ?
2. I googled quite a lot, but could only dig out details of one - one
converters i.e., one serial port - one Ethernet port.
3. How do I set up a network in which serial port output from several
devices can be transferred to a single PC, after conversion to
Ethernet format. That is, some sort of a multiplexer - do any such
devices exist ?
Any information, hints, suggestions would be of immense help. Thanks
in advance.

Generally (there are always exceptions) if one has an app that works
well over a simple serial port then the most straightforward approach is
often to just "wrap" the existing serial data in UDP and broadcast it to
the whole subnet. This allows many "listeners" to get the data
simultaneously, in a manner very similar to receiving serial data from
an RS-422/485 "talker".

If there are multiple serial devices, each would send its data to a
different port. For example,
Device 0: broadcasts to 192.168.0.255:10500
Device 1: broadcasts to 192.168.0.255:10501
...
Device 7: broadcasts to 192.168.0.255:10507

On the PC side, the application would listen for traffic on the above
UDP ports. The port number on which a packet was received would identify
the originating device. In this case, the network itself acts as the
"multiplexor."

If the packets need to be routed outside of the local subnet, then
things get a bit more complicated.

--
Rich Webb Norfolk, VA