On Fri, 3 Nov 2023 06:47:30 -0700, Wayne Sherman via fpc-pascal <fpc-pascal@lists.freepascal.org> wrote:
>Yes, there is software that bridges a serial connection over a >network. On Windows it is often called a "virtual com port" or >"virtual serial port" or "com port redirector". > >Open Source Linux: >ser2net >https://github.com/cminyard/ser2net >(ser2net is available in many distro package managers) Thanks a lot for your pointers!!! I have looked up your links on ser2net and gogled a bit, but I see many references to using the system with *Telnet* apparently to log in to a console command window or such. That is not my application, all transfers are binary in nature with data as big as 1 Mbytes but sent as packets with checksums. Question: --------- Does ser2net interfere with the data transfer by assuming "control chars" or the like? If so it cannot be used for my application even though it looked promising when I started to read about it. OTOH: If these mentions of Telnet are only examples and ser2net actually does not assume anything at all about the data being sent/received, then this seems like what I need. In fact the device hooked to the measure system is an RPi3B using the serial port on the RPi and it works fine using the custom automation software. But now I need to troubleshoot the Windows general user interface to the system from afar and I need the link via the network. So ser2net seems like a logical use given that the RPi3 is already there connected by wire to the serial line and is available via VPN on the network. I have just checked (using PuTTY via VPN) that the RPi3 does not yet have a ser2net installed but there is a candidate 3.5-2 available via apt. So if I shut down the existing control software then the serial port becomes free to use with ser2net, I guess. So then I need to do the Windows side as well to complete the system. I assume ser2net is a server only software so one cannot connect two ser2net to each other and then use the serial ports in both ends to complete the connection? I.e. on my location using another RPi3 to expose its serial port as an entry point towards the other end would not be possible, right? Or can ser2net in fact run as a client too and connect to another instance running as a server? If so all I need is an RPi here that can VPN over to the remote LAN (it can, I use that for subversion commits) and on which I install ser2net too but as a client and I now have a serial port to hook my Windows system into... -- Bo Berglund Developer in Sweden _______________________________________________ fpc-pascal maillist - fpc-pascal@lists.freepascal.org https://lists.freepascal.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fpc-pascal
