| At TALtech we get many questions from customers who want to get data from RS232 devices (medical equipment, industrial data collectors, etc.) onto TCP/IP networks. To do this there are two basic options:
• Use one of the many RS232 to TCP/IP hardware converters (sometimes called "Terminal Servers" or "Serial Device Servers"). These are small boxes with a plug for your RS232 device and another for an Ethernet network connection. The RS232 data goes in, is converted to a TCP/IP data packet and is sent out to the network to any connected TCP/IP client.
Serial Device Servers are perfect for places where you do not have a PC available such as out on a plant floor. Please visit our links pages for manufacturers of this type of device. http://www.taltech.com/resources/links.html#RS232Hardware
• TCP-Com software from TALtech. TCP-Com is a Windows software-based RS232 to TCP/IP to RS232 converter. It is perfect in any location where an RS232 device can be hooked directly to a Windows PC. It has many advantages:
• Cost: TCP-Com is typically much less expensive than hardware based serial device servers.
• Support for multiple devices: TCP-Com can support up to 32 com ports simultaneously so you can collect data from many more devices simultaneously than with the hardware based serial device servers.
• Support for creating Virtual Serial Ports making it easy to use existing serial communications software to connect to serial devices located anywhere on a network (See press release below).
Read our guide to Using TCP/IP as an Instrument Interface at http://www.taltech.com/resources/tcpip.htm |
