How to Avoid Pitfalls in the Selection of Serial To Ethernet Server

Serial to Ethernet server enables traditional RS232/422/485 devices to be connected to the Internet immediately. It is widely used in factory automation, POS system, building automation systems, self-service banking systems, telecommunication room monitoring, power monitoring, and other fields. Nowadays, the technology of Serial to Ethernet servers is relatively mature, and there are many domestic manufacturers of Serial to Ethernet servers, but the quality and price are uneven. Many enterprises do not fully consider the environment of the project application site when choosing and purchasing, which leads to various unstable phenomena in the use process and increases unnecessary maintenance costs. So, how to avoid pitfalls in the selection of a Serial to Ethernet server?

1. Equipment fails to work normally in outdoor extreme environment

The lowest temperature in winter in the north of the Yellow River, Northwest China, and Northeast China is tens of degrees below zero, while the outdoor temperature in summer in some provinces of South and East China is very high. In this case, you will find that the Serial to Ethernet server bought online often has problems in use or its service life is greatly reduced due to saline-alkali, temperature, static electricity, and other reasons. An industrial Serial to Ethernet server, on the other hand, can operate stably in harsh field environments, and its industrial design ensures that its internal components will not age rapidly under the influence of the environment.

2. The power supply is not guaranteed, the voltage fluctuation is large, and the equipment is often shut down or damaged.

At present, although the residential power voltage in our country is very stable, in many industrial sites, because the power supply voltage can not be fully guaranteed, the voltage fluctuation is large, for example, 220V AC directly drops to 100V; 24V DC fluctuates between 12 ~ 48V. In this case, the equipment is prone to shutdown or damage. When choosing a Serial to Ethernet server, it is better to choose a Serial to Ethernet server that supports wide voltage. After all, in the industrial field, even a minute of downtime will cause great economic losses. Most of the designs of Serial to Ethernet servers adopt the design of wide temperature and wide voltage, which is only to adapt to more industrial sites and provide reliable functions for stable data transmission

3. The end-to-end data transmission delay of the virtual serial port function is high, resulting in untimely data acquisition.

Many enterprises have purchased equipment from non-professional manufacturers. After configuration and installation, it is found that when using the virtual serial port function, the data transferred from the serial port to Ethernet is often not collected in time, or even lost, which has an impact on field applications and losses. The reason for this problem is that the data stays in the Ethernet protocol stack for too long to achieve end-to-end transmission with low latency. In the final analysis, Serial to Ethernet server manufacturers have insufficient technical accumulation in product software. These problems are fatal in some applications of factory automation.PUSR uses the watchdog protection mechanism Serial to Ethernet server to achieve 24 hours without downtime.

Six debugging tips for Serial to Ethernet server

1. How to configure the serial server?

Before you use Terminal Server, you must configure the parameters according to your operating environment and application requirements before you connect and use the system. These parameters mainly include network parameters, the operation mode of each serial port, print service, management information of the device itself, and other contents.

2. How to set the serial port properties of the serial server, such as the baud rate?

On the Setup screen, enter the program settings, select the program, and then enter the serial parameters.

3. Why is data lost when using the virtual serial port to transfer files?

At this point, the virtual program loses data, mainly because the virtual serial port program completes the data faster and the serial port sends itself slowly while the virtual program sends the data to the remote device. The "analog baud rate" can be set in the virtual program.

4. Serial port self-test

Serial port self-test is a common method to detect whether the serial port is good or not. Connect pins 2 and 3 and manually send one (or more) bytes using the Serial Debug Assistant. If the reception area can receive the same bytes, the serial port is good and working; Otherwise, there is a problem with the serial port. With the addition of a serial server, this method can still be applied regardless of the cross or direct connection.

5. Serial port test simulation  

For serial port testing, a computer can be used to simulate a device, but it does not have to be a real device. You can also simulate the baud rate and try other serial debugging assistants. There is a problem with one of the serial debug assistants. For example, a message that a serial port is occupied is not the same as a serial port problem. Debugging Assistant can also be a software problem. At this point, you can try to change the software.

6. Two ways to use a serial port server

Virtual serial port and IP form.

Note: The two methods are basically equivalent, but if one fails to connect, you can try the other. That is, the monitoring software may only support one or the other.