moxa multiport serial cards

[Boris Samorodov]

On Fri, 13 Oct 2006 11:32:01 +0100 Philip M Brown wrote:

> I am a long time user of freebsd but have no -NO knowledge of moxa
> multiport cards. I see there is great support for moxa on freebsd so I
> put my question forth.

> i have acquired Moxa Model cp-114 and am trying to figure out its
> usages.

> The CP-114 Series of multiport serial boards is designed for RS-232 and
> RS-422/485 industrial communication. The CP-114 Series has 2 ports for
> RS-232 or RS-422/485, selectable by jumper, and 2 ports for RS-422/485,
> with each RS-422/485 port able to control up to 32 devices in a
            ^^^^^^^^^^  [1]
> multidrop environment.

> so does this mean I can wire up one of the rs-232 ports to a patch
                                             ^^^^^^  [2]
> panel
> and then split that into 32 rj=45 connectors which would in turn be
> connected to various serial devices (pc/router/switchers).

No, mind your [1] and [2]. RS-232 is a point-to-point interface, while
RS-485 is for master->multiple slaves interface.

> or do i need another box that translates these signals. I assumed the
> card did all the processing.

If your hardware (you want to control) uses only RS-232 you should
install a miltiport RS-232 card. BTW, I've got a SUNIX UTS7009P
USB to 7 port RS-232 adapter which uses a pl2303 chip and works great
at FreeBSD.

If your hardwares use RS-485 ports than you can connect (up to
32/64/.. -- depends on port chips) to RS-485 net and control them
through one master device (one RS-485 port at your server). Setting up
an RS-485 net has it own tips and tricks which you may find at Google.


WBR
-- 
Boris Samorodov (bsam)
Research Engineer, http://www.ipt.ru Telephone & Internet SP
FreeBSD committer, http://www.FreeBSD.org The Power To Serve