XPort or Connect Me help???

[ccsparky]

Hello,

I am interested in information about the XPort or Connect ME modules but have very limited ethernet knowledge.

At this time I have a program written in Delphi. With a serial connection I can enter data in a text box and send it to a 16F88. The 16F88 will then send the data back to the PC and it is displayed in another text box. I would like to have three 16F88's with XPorts that I can communicate with over a network.
The program mentioned above is very basic just enough to see something happening.

I believe the connections I need are:

16F88------------XPort
TX (PIN 11)------(PIN 5) DIn
RX (PIN 8)------(PIN 4) DOut


What can I expect?
Do I still use the Delphi program I have?
How to I establish a connection with each 16F88/Xport?

Any assistance is greatly appreciated!

Thank you

William

[NavMicroSystems]

William,

since you have managed to post on a web based forum you do have all "Ethernet-knowledge" required to make a PIC communicate with a PC using an XPort.

The XPort in conjunction with the LANTRONIX ReDirector simply is a virtual serial connection between the PC and PIC.

you can use a Terminal Software like HyperTerm or any other piece of software that support serial communication.

I do have a number of XPorts running absolutely reliably in harsh industrial environments.

P.S.
I have tried different products, and found in terms of cost, ease of use and reliability the XPort is a good choice.

[Charles Linquis]

I, too have hundreds of XPORTS running with PICs. They are fantastic devices.
A couple of things to note, however:

XPORTs are 3.3V devices. You will need a level shifter to convert from the XPORT to the PIC (I use 74HC gates for this purpose), and I put a 1K resistor in series with the output of the PIC to drive the 3.3V input of the XPORT.

Setting up the IP address and other network parameters through the serial port using a PIC is NOT trivial - you have to send it setup records, which are Intel Hex strings.

If you need to do extensive configuration of an XPORT using your PIC, I can give you some pointers.

Charles Linquist

[NavMicroSystems]

.
XPORTs are 3.3V devices. You will need a level shifter to convert from the XPORT to the PIC (I use 74HC gates for this purpose), and I put a 1K resistor in series with the output of the PIC to drive the 3.3V input of the XPORT.

The I/Os of the XPort-03 are 5V tolerant, so no real need for level-shifting.


.
Setting up the IP address and other network parameters through the serial port using a PIC is NOT trivial - you have to send it setup records, which are Intel Hex strings.

To be honest, I have never tried to configure an XPort through the serial port, since configuration can be done easily through the Ethernet Port directly or using the DeviceInstaller.


.
If you need to do extensive configuration of an XPORT using your PIC, I can give you some pointers.

Charles, I would be interrested in your solution.

[ccsparky]

Hello Ralph and Charles,
Thanks for all the good input.

Once I have set up each XPorts IP and installed Redirector, I assign each XPort to it's own comm port in redirector and it's off to the races. Sounds simple enough. By opening say comm port 4 a connection is made to the XPort that was assigned to that port and so on. Wow

I don't plan on setting up XPort via PIC at this time as I am reading to learn as much as I can right now and don't see a need for this procedure right yet, that being said please proceed I'll read anything posted on the subject of XPort and it sounds interesting, thank you!

So at this point the only way I can communicate with the XPort is with a PC that has redirector installed, is this the only way?
I've seen a few things about JAVA but I don't really want to start learning Java at this time.
Can connections be made using a web browser so that one could send and receive data to and from the XPort from any pc in any location without redirector?

I see from both of your replies that you have hundreds of these devices running. Are they all on different networks? How many comm ports can be created with Redirector?

Thanks for the great feed back, I can't wait to get started!

William

[NavMicroSystems]

Once I have set up each XPorts IP and installed Redirector, I assign each XPort to it's own comm port in redirector and it's off to the races. Sounds simple enough. By opening say comm port 4 a connection is made to the XPort that was assigned to that port and so on. Wow

That's exactly the way it works !



So at this point the only way I can communicate with the XPort is with a PC that has redirector installed, is this the only way?

This is definitely not the only way, but it is the easiest way!



How many comm ports can be created with Redirector?


The Redirector supports up to 80 ports,
and you can even have more than one XPort assigned to the same virtual com port.

[Charles Linquis]

I write the setup records of the XPORT from a PIC using the following algorithm:

1. Pull XPORT RESET line low for 3 seconds with the PIC and then let it go high again.

2. Send a series of lower case 'z's to the Xport. Wait 100ms after each 'z', check for a received character by polling PIR1.5.

3. When a character is detected, wait 1 second. Then send "S0" (for setup record "0") wait 150ms then send an ASCII 0x0d then wait 550 ms.

4. Now send the contents of the setup records themselves in Intel Hex.
Start with ":2000010... and send the 32-byte record in ASCII as defined in the Intel Hex specification. End each line with the calculated checksum.
Do the same for the other four lines of the setup record. You must write all four lines of a setup record even if you want to change only one of the lines!

5. Write any other setup records needed using the same algorithm. I usually write records 0, 1 and 7.

6. Pull the XPORT RESET line low for 3 seconds. When it comes back up
your new settings should be in effect.

[NavMicroSystems]

Thanks Charles!

[ccsparky]

Ralph and Charles,

I'll start out with Redirector and go the comm port route and then maybe graduate to world wide communications later on!

While looking for a way to test XPort on a breadboard I ran into this site. They have a dongle and interface board.

http://www.comfiletech.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=7

Any other ideas on how to use XPort on breadboard?

Thanks for all of your help!

William

[NavMicroSystems]

William,

to get started quickly you could order one of the "Dongle"-PCBs.
($8 isn't too much, is it?)

another low cost option is to use some short pieces of wire and solder the XPort to a connector (or DIP-Socket) that fits the grid of the breadboard.

(That makes it easy to reuse the XPort later on the final target PCB.)

[Charles Linquis]

In my application, I had to give the user the ability to change IP addresses, protocols (UDP vs telnet) and a variety of other parameters from a menu without using any third-party software.

Requiring users to load PORT TOOL and other software just didn't fit with my idea of a professional product, one that I could (and do) sell to customers including the military.

As it is, everything is menu-driven through the serial-port interface, and is easy to use.

It should be noted that I use one serial port, and multiplex the TxD and RxD between a MAX232 and the XPORT. It works flawlessly.