Numerous people have asked so I'll post it here. Yes, you could use a terminal server but that's overkill. A serial hub is a better solution. I purchased a comtrol rocket port si (8 serial port version). It lists for $999 but I found it for $300 new via mailorder. This is a stand-alone box, not a PC add-in card (size is about 8x6x3, tiny). There are several other companies that make them - Equinox is another that I liked the specs of. I saw an equinox 16 port server go for about $100 on eBay. There is about $10 worth of hardware in these things! There are a ton of different versions with lots of features.
The way it works is you plug your serial device into the hub and then install a driver on the PC you want to use. Win 9x and NT flavors plus Linux are supported by Comtrol. Equinox supports a slightly smaller set. The driver creates a Comm Port on your PC for each on the hub. You then point your application to the comm port that the device you want to use is plugged into and access it just like it was plugged into the PC. Pretty easy. If you are good at writing software, you could probably build your own with a cheap linux box and a multiport I/O card. not worth my effort though. I am getting SDMR from my 816 this way and controlling several other devices (badge reader, lighting control system). I'm still having problems with programmator though (it doesn't like com4, not sure the problem yet). Since I cant have the Pana software (sheesh, what BS on pana's part...), I cant tell you if it works or not. It does work with the my TVS50 (since it just needs only a "terminal ap"). Hyperterminal only knows com1-com4 so I haven't tried it. Also, you cant use this for apps that communicate directly with serial I/O hardware on the PC. Those guys dont work on NT/2000/XP anyway. Enjoy! links: www.control.com (serial hub) www.moxa.com (ether device, I think) www.digi.com (network serial concentrators) www.lantronix.com (device server) www.equinox.com (serial hub) _________________________________________________________________ KX-T Mailing list --- http://kxthelp.com/ Subscription changes: http://kxthelp.com/mailman/listinfo/kxt
