There is an on-board UART to USB converter on the RCC-VE/DFFv2/4860/8880/2440/2220. This is wired directly to the chipset uart on the Rangely, at system voltage levels, not at RS232 levels. (The USB convert chip is cost comparable to a RS-232 voltage driver chip in cost, and has a smaller board footprint.) Additionally the connect takes up less back-panel space.
There are no test points brought out, if there were you would need a level shifter, and an isolator to protect the SOC. Most modern systems have USB Host ports, which is all that is required for the USB serial interface to work. Any small system, can manage quite a few hosts with a powered usb hub. (We actually use Beaglebone black as terminal servers). We actually switched all our remaining terminal server systems over to these types, by getting a rack-mount 32 port USB to RS-232 converter. On 8/1/2016 3:10 PM, Karl Fife wrote: > USB HOST to RS232 adapter > > It appears that the new rangely-based pfSense certified hardware > (2440, 4860) has a mini-USB (client) port for console access. > > This "convenience" is ironic for us because I actually prefer RS232, > (because that's the interface everything else uses). As far as I > know, I can't buy a USB-to-RS232 adapter because the dongles you buy > are all USB *clients* (as is the router) therefore I couldn't connect > a dongle adapter to pfSense and connect with hardware RS232. > > The other irony is that the pfSense board doubtless has the UART right > there on the board ahead of the USB adapter. I wish there were a USB > Header I could grab. Can anyone say whether there's a way to grab > serial from the board directly? > > While this baked-in adapter may be in improvement for many, I'm > guessing it's as inconvenient others because RS232 is a standard > handoff. Everything else uses it, so we build solutions around it. > With hardware RS232, I can attach a Serial-to-IP adapter connected to > our management network, or I can run serial over twisted pair to a > remote hardware serial port. > > Any elegant solutions to this change? > > > > > _______________________________________________ > pfSense mailing list > https://lists.pfsense.org/mailman/listinfo/list > Support the project with Gold! https://pfsense.org/gold _______________________________________________ pfSense mailing list https://lists.pfsense.org/mailman/listinfo/list Support the project with Gold! https://pfsense.org/gold
