[Elecraft] Ethernet to serial adapters

[Brian Lloyd]

On Jun 21, 2008, at 7:03 AM, Manuel Maseda wrote:

>
> Hello,
>
> Anyone have any experience with Ethernet to serial adapters?  Would  
> it be
> possible to connect one to the K3 serial port?

Yes, but the problem you face is that there is no standard way to make  
that device look like a standard serial port to the OS running your  
logging or rig control software. Make sure that the ethernet-to-serial  
adaptor comes with an OS-specific driver that then looks like a  
standard serial port to any programs running on the computer. Many of  
these devices are intended to accept only a TELNET or SSH connection.

Some EtS device work as a virtual serial cable with one device  
attached to the serial port on your computer and another attached to  
the serial port on the controlled device (K3 in this case). That does  
allow you to control something over a long distance. This approach  
seems to work pretty well and I have used this when controlling  
devices that have a specific communications protocol.

I have experimented with bluetooth adaptors which are much better  
supported in the various OS's as serial devices. Even so I have  
experienced mixed results. I have found that, in all my test cases, I  
could not change the baud rate under program control and had to use  
manual settings. Likewise I couldn't get the control lines, i.e. RTS  
and DTR, to change under program control.

So you are going to have to try various devices to see if they will  
work. Don't expect perfection.

--

73 de Brian, WB6RQN
Brian Lloyd - brian HYPHEN wb6rqn AT lloyd DOT com