ethernet to rs-232

[Sphere]

http://www.lantronix.com/device-netw...rs/uds-10.html

Not to shure if this is what you are looking for.

Sphere.

[dhouston]

Microchip recently released the ENC28J60 which is an Ethernet to SPI bridge. I haven't yet seen any sample PBP code to make use of it.

There are numerous manufacturers who supply Ethernet-to-RS232 devices, frequently called serial servers. Some provide virtual serial port drivers for the PC end so legacy software sees them as serial devices. You can handle the PIC end with PBP code. The Lantronix XPort is one such device.

[DynamoBen]

As I understand it the ENC28J60 is more than just plug and play. You have to load a TCP/IP stack onto a specific type of pic. My guess is the lantronix device is going to be the winner.

[dhouston]

As I understand it the ENC28J60 is more than just plug and play. You have to load a TCP/IP stack onto a specific type of pic.

I don't think your understanding is correct. The ENC28J60 datasheet says...

• The ENC28J60 is a stand-alone Ethernet controller with an industry standard Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI™). It is designed to serve as an Ethernet network interface for any controller equipped with SPI.
  ...
  With the ENC28J60, two pulse transformers and a few passive components are all that is required to connect a microcontroller to a 10 Mbps Ethernet network.

[DynamoBen]

I completely undestand how it works. A few months back nuts and volts magazine covered it. Although it is an ethernet controller at the physical level you still need to manage the protocol. When I first saw it I thought it would be plug and play until I looked into it further. Trust me when I say it takes a fair amount of work for it to function the way the lantronix does.

[Charles Linquis]

I currently use the Lantronix XPORT with a whole bunch of PIC- based projects.

The Lantronix has a pin (CP2) that can be programmed to be a "carrier detect" pin. This pin goes "low" whenever a telnet session is in progress. I use that signal to "hijack" the RS232 port (using a 74HC125). That way, I get RS232 functionality when there is no active Ethernet session. It all works automatically with no manual switching.
The best part about the XPORT is that you don't have to deal with protocol stacks or the processor overhead they it would take. The PIC just "talks" RS232 at 9600 baud.
One downside - to change the IP address (or any other parameter) of the Ethernet port from the "serial side", you have to write what Lantronix calls Setup Records. These are 128 or 256 byte strings of Intel Hex. You have to write the entire record if you want to change only one variable.

I can give details if anyone needs them.

Charles Linquist

[dhouston]

I can give details if anyone needs them.

I'd like the details.