Introduction
NetBurner’s Serial to Ethernet devices are designed to connect a serial device to a network or over the Internet, and our NTP devices are designed to provide NTP time services to your network directly from a builtin GPS satellite receiver. Our devices support several operating modes, including serial over TCP and/or UDP. Configuring them is fairly straight forward, though it’s important to get the settings correct.
This guide will introduce you to some of the different ways in which our devices are set up, some of the tools that are used in conjunction with them, and a step by step guide to get started. We will also provide resources with more information on the specific settings associated with the builtin application shipped your device from the factory.
Resources
The following resources are useful in getting your device up and running, and will be referenced throughout the rest of this guide.
User Manual
Select your Serial to Ethernet or NTP device model number to download the User Manual and Datasheet:
Utilities
- MTTTY: Serial terminal that can be used to change the device setting serially, view connection information, or to view the serial data being received over the network
- IPSetup: Used to discover the IP address of your device on the network
- NetBurner Virtual COMM Port Driver: Used to create a virtual serial port through a Windows PC over a network connection
Device Setup
- Connect one of the serial ports to your serial device
- Connect the NetBurner device to your network via the Ethernet jack
- Find the NetBurner device’s IP address using IPSetup
- Configure the software settings of the NetBurner device using your computer’s web browser by going to the URL
http://<device IP address>
Software Configuration
Before being able to use your NetBurner Serial to Ethernet device, you will need to configure the appropriate options for both the serial data settings as well as the network settings.
NTP Devices
NTP devices require no special configuration once they have the appropriate IP address and GPS reception, however their IP may be configured with DHCP or manually, their network name may be customized, a password should be set to prevent unauthorized access, and a status page can show GPS and time information.
Serial Settings
On Serial to Ethernet devices, each port on your NetBurner device will be able to support its own set of serial settings. These will include the operating mode (RS-232, RS-485, or RS-422 half-duplex or full-duplex), as well as the baud rate, data bits, stop bits, and parity.
Network Settings
Serial to Ethernet devices have several network settings that can be configured to allow it to operate in many different network configurations. It can send data using either the TCP or UDP protocol, and when using TCP, can act as the client or the server.
TCP Connection, Server Mode
In this configuration, the Serial to Ethernet device acts as a network device server, listening for incoming network connections. When an incoming network connection is established, all received network data is sent out the serial port, and all received serial data is sent out the network port.
TCP Connection, Client Mode
In this configuration, the Serial to Ethernet device acts as a network device client and initiates the connection to another network device, such as a network server. You can choose to have a permanent network connection that is established as soon as the device is powered on, or you can choose to only have a connection established when serial data is available to send to the network destination.
Serial Tunneling
Serial Tunneling uses two Serial to Ethernet devices to simulate a direct serial cable connection between two serial devices. The two Serial to Ethernet devices communicate over a network connection with one being configured as the Server and the other as a Client. Your serial devices are unaware that a network connection is involved and communicate just as they would with a direct serial data connection. Note that this mode does not support non-standard use of the hardware flow control signals, such as using them as general purpose input/output signals.
For more information on how to set this up, please see our article, Demystifying Serial Tunneling.
Virtual Comm Port Driver for Windows
The NetBurner Virtual Comm Port Driver enables you to create virtual serial ports on your Windows PC. These virtual comm ports appear as serial ports to Windows applications, but are converted to network traffic by the driver. When you specify the IP address of your SB800EX as the network destination for the virtual comm port, all serial traffic will be sent to that address.
For more information on how to set up a virtual comm port using our driver, please see our article, How to Create a Virtual Serial Port (COM Port).
Getting Started
To get started with your device, perform the following steps:
- Download the manual and datasheet for your device using the links above.
- Download IPSetup, the MTTTY serial terminal, and if required, the NetBurner Virtual Comm Port Driver.
- Connect the serial cables from your Serial to Ethernet device to your serial device.
- Connect a network cable from the Serial to Ethernet device to your network.
- Plug the power supply jack into the Serial to Ethernet device’s power port.
- Run IPSetup to determine the IP address of the Serial to Ethernet device. If a DHCP server is present on your network, it will get an IP address automatically. Otherwise a static IP address must be configured using IPSetup. Please refer to the device’s User Manual for more detailed information on IP address selection.
- Open a web browser and type the IP address of the Serial to Ethernet device in the URL address field.
- Select the network and serial configuration options required for your setup.
Testing Your Device
A good way to test and experiment with the various function of your Serial to Ethernet device is to run a Telnet session and the MTTTY serial terminal on a single PC. When you go through the steps listed previously and connect to the Serial to Ethernet device through a Telnet session, anything that is typed in the Telnet window should appear in the MTTTY window, and vice versa.