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Serial to TCP/IP converter?

ftcnet

ftcnet

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Joined
May 4, 2019
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BC Canada
What's a good choice for a serial to TCP/IP converter that works with OS/8? I've seen some low-cost (~$50) ones that support a variety of modes but no mention of XON-XOF (^S-^Q) flow control.

I have my 8/E in a detached shop about 150 ft. away from my house. Shop has Cat6 Ethernet to the house. I'd like to be able to Telnet (or use a similar network terminal program) to the 8/E console (KL8-JA) via the LAN/Ethernet.

Some RS-232 to Ethernet converters can be configured for 'server' or 'client' mode. I presume the converter would need to be set for 'server' mode to allow this to work.

WinPC <-LAN-> [converter] <-RS-232-> 8/E KL8-JA OS/8 What converter has worked for you?
 
I've used RS232/Ethernet converters in the past, but in pro applications where the cost would be prohibitive to most of us at home. I can't speak for the $50 units. But the converters are typically not as smart as you're giving them credit for. They simply packetize the characters received from the RS232 and 'unpacketize' the characters sent to it. The XON-XOF operation is a matter of setting up PUTTY or TELNET for it. As the name implies, software flow control is in the software. If TELNET sends a CTRL-S, the converter will output a CTRL-S. If it receives a CTRL-S from the serial port, it will output a CTRL-S to the TELNET session.

If you're into homebrew parts, an Arduino-based solution could be fun and maybe even cheaper. That way you have complete control over what it does and how you want to use it. If you built two of them that talked to each other you'd be able to open a simple pipe via ethernet and have the console port DB connector duplicated 100% anywhere on the network.
 
I think the Lantronix UDS1100 may do what you need, its user manual explicitly mentions XON/XOFF as a flow control option (although it's likely that anything that passes ^S and ^Q through unchanged would work in your situation). They retail for >$100 but I commonly see them available used on eBay for less than $50 each. A few years back I was able to pick up 5 of them used, for $35 shipped.
 
The UDS1100 is probably a very good option. To access it, you would install the "DeviceInstaller" software on your modern machine. This software allows you to create a virtual COM port that connects to the IP address of the UDS1100. After that, it's just like having a cable strung between two serial ports so any program, like Putty, can connect.

The DeviceInstaller page says that it will work with Windows 10 64-Bit but I haven't tried it.

http://ltxfaq.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/644

Good luck!

Heather
 
Personally, I'd just pick up a cheap used thin client run it headless and configure it to serve as a bridge. Implement whatever protocol you'd like. You could probably do the same thing with an MCU like an RPi, but you'd need RS232C level translation.
 
I have done just that, used a RPi connected to a PDP-8a. I used a USB-RS232 adapter to make it really easy. The RPi also doubles as serialdisk server with yet another USB-RS232 cable.
 
Chuck(G) said:
Personally, I'd just pick up a cheap used thin client run it headless and configure it to serve as a bridge. Implement whatever protocol you'd like. You could probably do the same thing with an MCU like an RPi, but you'd need RS232C level translation.
Click to expand...

That's basically what I did for a while as well. WYSE clients are rather nice and low power if you wish not to have a bare RasPI just hanging off the rack.
 
I get the distinct impression that the WiFi-232 is for outbound communication. In this situation inbound communication is what's needed, so a device is needed that acts as a server and accepts connections from the network. "console server" is one of the names typically used nowadays for such things. "terminal server" is now too easily confused with Microsoft "terminal services" and has apparently fallen out of vogue. The WiFi-232 can accept connections from the network, but it doesn't support DCD or RI which is what older systems would have needed. Sending "RING" as text to the host wouldn't work in this case.

Incidentally, I was thinking that if there are multiple hosts in that detached shop, a multi-port console server might be a better choice than the single-port UDS1100. I was browsing eBay yesterday and saw a 16-port Avocent device that was relatively cheap.
 
kgober said:
The WiFi-232 can accept connections from the network, but it doesn't support DCD or RI which is what older systems would have needed. Sending "RING" as text to the host wouldn't work in this case.
Click to expand...

I don't know anything about the Wifi232 modules sold, but you can build one yourself. The information here shows how to build out a full implementation that wires up both DCD and RI. I've built that module but I can't be sure the code out there is supporting it since I haven't used that functionality. However, the arduino code is available so I'm sure any modifications could be made to do so if it doesn't already.


http://subethasoftware.com/2018/02/...-under-10-using-esp8266-and-zimodem-firmware/
 
Point to point wifi has been been done with ESP8266 but probably not with full hardware handshaking. Could be done, tho...
 
Slob said:
Point to point wifi has been been done with ESP8266 but probably not with full hardware handshaking. Could be done, tho...
Click to expand...

Yeah, that link i sent had instructions to build one with full hardware flow control, carrier detect, ring detection, etc. However, I don't see any reference on how detailed the scripting is for it since coding is not my thing. The parts to build the fully implemented hardware cost me about $20. I built that version since it wasn't that much more and wanted the option to play with setting up a BBS using it eventually. I'd test it to see if it worked for the OPs purpose, but I don't have OS/8. I don't see why it wouldn't though.
 
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