[time-nuts] rs-422 rs-232 to fast ethernet converter

Graham planophore at aei.ca
Mon Nov 24 18:23:16 EST 2014


I have done a bit of searching and found that what I want to do is 
nothing really new and their are several off the shelf applications 
which will work just fine - linux and Windows based hence the mention of 
the Raspberry PI and Beaglebone Black. Some of the higher end Arduinos 
(i.e. Yu) are capable of running linux and Windows as well but it would 
be entirely possible to roll you own using the lower end Arduinos as well.

I found some answers rather quickly after I started searching for the 
right things, for example Serial to Network Proxy.

On Windows you could use a virtual serial port to do the redirecting 
from com port to network and on linux there are several the one I found 
often mentioned is socat.

The little serial to fast ethernet boxes which I was finding would work 
in the situations where you don't have a computer near the device you 
are trying to connect to, they act as the Serial to Network Proxy. In my 
case, I have a computer nearby which runs linux and is my GPS 
disciplined NTP server. I have purchased a RS422 to USB interface cable 
which will connect the KS-24631 to my linux box. Now I just have to sort 
through all of the information I have found and figure out just which 
app I need on the linux box (likely socat) and which one on any of the 
other computers on my network with which I may want to connect to the 
KS-24631. And of course, how to configure them.

cheers, Graham ve3gtc



On 2014-11-24 08:42, Jim Lux wrote:
> On 11/24/14, 2:20 AM, Graham wrote:
>> Interesting.
>>
>> I have also been thinking that it might not be too difficult to
>> implement using Beaglebone Black, Raspberry PI, or even one or another
>> flavour of Arduino. Lots of possibilities from simple to not so simple.
>>
>>
>
> The challenge is always trying to figure out what sort of protocol to 
> use for encapsulating serial data in the Ethernet Stream.  Do you send 
> each character in its own UDP or TCP datagram? Do you batch them 
> together and send a message every TBD milliseconds.
>
> Ideally, you'd like the protocol to match some commonly available 
> client on the other end.  Sure, things like telnet exist, but does 
> software that expects an actual serial port know how to use telnet 
> instead?
>
> That said, there's plenty of example code out there for, example, the 
> Arduino Ethernet.  There's a telnet server that could easily be modified.
>



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