Some comments The make and model I'm using is
Digi www.digi.com http://www.digi.com/products/serialservers/portserverts#overview I've used the 1, 4 and 16 port. The 1 and 4 are the same design. USB There are USB serial port servers, I have one that is 4 ports. But like anything USB it requires the computer to be close. For me I have two locations where my gizmo's are not near the PC. The other is at times I want to be able to run Lady Heather or Trimble Studio from my Laptop which maybe out on the porch while having a beer and operating the BBQ :-) Group buy The model I've been using is still made but even the 1 port model is over $100. The 4 port model shows up on the E quite often and I've been able to get them for as little as $20. The 16 port model was $5 at a local used PC store. Cards (Internal) For me pretty much the same as USB, and the other for me is the PC I have on the bench has only 2 short length PCI slots. One is taken up with a GPIB card an the other a data acquisitions card. Another is I have two benches. With a network attached setup I can access my serial stuff from either bench. This is my setup your mileage may very like in many setups. Also past experience has not been pleasant with these things. If your 100% Microsoft and never update past XP you may be OK Other makes, Lantronix, Cyclades, etc. Other then Cyclades 48 port servers, Digi is the only other vendor I've worked work. Hence not disqualifying anyone else just what I've used. Terminal servers are simple boxes. You just Telnet to the port. Some are, some like the current generation Digi's go beyond that. For example the software that makes a port on the Digi look like a COM (uSoft) or TTY (*nix) port. They even do things like create port tunnels, where a serial port on two box 'look' like the same port. One thing I like with the ones I have is you can for example set port 1 to emulate a COM port, port 2 to respond as a telnet session, port3 to only use SSL so you can safely use it over the Internet, etc. And if you really careful, you can have multiple network sessions telnet for example to one serial port. Something I've not yet tried. Cost Pretty much how good you are at finding stuff, where you live, etc. My 16 port unit was $5, the most I've paid is something like $40 (1/3 of it shipping) for a 4 port models. I will be adding a wiki to my yet to be developed website and will make a page on what I've implemented, I'd love to see what others have done with different makes and models, specially in emulating COM/TTY ports. Before that I'll write up a short summery for this weekend. -pete On Mon, May 21, 2012 at 7:55 PM, Pete Lancashire <[email protected]> wrote: > Like many time-nuts I have quite a few devices that communicate to the > outside world with a serial port. And like many I have more then one. > In a past life I use to have to connect to sometimes a 100 RS232 in > one location. A popular device is called a terminal server or > concentrator. They would take from 1 to 48 RS232 ports on one side and > let you talk to them via an Ethernet interface. I so far have twelve > RS232 ports in use. > > Now that the need for such devices has diminished, these terminal > servers are showing up, sometimes for pennies. > > One brand and model Digi's TS family of models I and have verified > they work with Lady Heather and Trimble Studio on a Windows XP PC. > > Digi offers for free a program that makes each RS232 Port look like a > COM port, and after configuring the terminal server, and this driver, > you just just fire up Lady Heather pointing to the correct "COM Port". > > Other RS232 ports on the terminal server can either be COM ports, or > one can be connected to via Telnet of for security SSH. For example I > have an Odetics on one port > and I just enter telnet ts4a (the DNS name I gave one of the terminal > servers) 2003 (the IP port associated with the third RS232 port). > > So if this is of interest to anyone I'll go into more detail, models, setup > etc. > > -pete > > -pete _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
