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Serial - Ethernet converter request some details

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.
Reply to
Daku
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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.

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?? 100% natural
Reply to
Jasen Betts

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..

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 :-)

Reply to
1jam

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Reply to
Daku

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.

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Cats, coffee, chocolate...vices to live by
Reply to
Ecnerwal

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.

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Rich Webb     Norfolk, VA
Reply to
Rich Webb

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