Running HiveMQ MQTT broker on Azure IoT Edge.Azure Data Explorer connector for Blob storage (IoT Hub) files.Flex your Big Data detective skills with the Kusto detective agency challenge.The same goes for Industrial PCs which lack the availability of physical Serial ports. If your sensors or devices with serial ports are places at a large distance from your Industrial PC, a Serial Device Server or Gateway is the perfect solution for your range needs.
An uninstall/reinstall of the driver helps but it feels like some band aid.Ģ. After performing an upgrade, the driver is ‘corrupted’ thus the ports are inaccessible. The Moxa Nport virtual serial port driver does not survive an apt-get upgrade.
There is one downside to installing drivers this way.
This means data is flowing through our Moxa!īe careful with apt-get update, apt-get upgrade Notice, while sending the messages, the read and write indication lights on the Moxa (indicated P1 and P2) are flashing. The message is picked up by the serial port ttyr01. This is what I see when I send the message: The following scripts installs the drivers and creates virtual serial ports:Įcho This is a message over virtual ports > /dev/ttyr01
For this, we need to download the Linux drivers, install them in Linux and attach the drivers to the Moxa NPort.Īt the same Moxa site, drivers are available. Now in Linux, we will add RealTTY serial port support for the Moxa NPort using command line tooling. But you can use the Windows version just for giving the NPort a fixed IP address. Note: I have not found a ‘Device Search utility’ for Linux. The shiny GUI Administrator tool for Windows is not available for Linux. Once the IP address is available, this second tool can install the RealCOM serial port drivers for you: Check out if you can ping the Nport from your Industrial PC. Your target device will reach out to your Moxa so this address is vital. After logging in, you can set a correct (fixed) IP address for your moxa. This tool scans the network for NPort devices. Your Moxa has no correct IP address for your local network yet. First we need to download two tools from the Moxa site: This Moxa NPort passes the data from and to its physical ports to virtual ‘RealCOM’ ports on your target. But I’m happy to review a newer device if you have a spare one ? Having two ports is very convenient to test the solution as we will see later on.ĭisclaimer: I bought this device from a second-hand hardware site. It has two serial ports supporting RS-232. This is an older model but it still works fine. Let’s check out how this works with a Moxa NPort 5210A Serial Device Server. So the maximum length of a serial cable can be extended dramatically with the reach of the local IP network. The network and gateway becomes transparent for the RS-232 protocol. On this industrial PC, virtual port drivers are loaded which mimic the physical ports on the gateway. This gateway is then connected to the same IP network as your target device is (eg. With this solution, the physical cable is plugged in into a so-called Device Server or Device Gateway. Is it possible to bypass this limitation? Yes, this enters the virtual serial port.
The rule of thumb is a maximum of 50 feet/15 meters but I recommend up to 13/feet/3 meters. a lower baudrate or better quality of cable. The communication becomes less reliable when the length of the cable is increased. If we are looking at the RS-232 protocol, there is an important physical limitation: the cable length.
You still read these simple lines deviced by carriage return/line feed.īut output can also be more elaborate like NMEA, Telegram or even more exotic formats. Each measurement (like the weight from a scale) was printed on one line.
You see this a lot with devices which are/were connected to a (matrix) printer. The protocol on serial ports can be a very simple, human readable output. So if you enter a regular plant, sooner or later you will find some thirty year old device which is still talking serial. In the industrial IoT area, serial communication has been proven to be reliable, simple and trustworthy. Contrary to popular belief, serial port technology from the IT Stone-ages is still alive and kicking.