B&B Electronics ESP902 - Manual - Manual (Page 11)

Introduction
Manual Documentation Number: ESP901-902_5012m Chapter 1 3
B&B Electronics Mfg Co Inc – 707 Dayton Rd - PO Box 1040 - Ottawa IL 61350 - Ph 815-433-5100 - Fax 815-433-5104 – www.bb-elec.com
B&B Electronics Ltd – Westlink Commercial Pk – Oranmore, Galway, Ireland – Ph +353 91-792444 – Fax +353 91-792445 – www.bb-europe.com
Communication Modes
The ESP901 and ESP902 Serial Servers enable communication with
serial devices over a LAN or WAN. Serial devices no longer are
limited to a physical connection to the PC COM port. They can be
installed anywhere on the LAN using TCP/IP or UDP/IP
communications. This allows traditional Windows PC software access
to serial devices anywhere on the LAN/WAN network.
Direct IP Mode
Direct IP connections allow applications using TCP/IP or UDP/IP
socket programs to communicate with the asynchronous serial ports on
the
Serial Server . In this type of application the Serial Server is
configured as a TCP or UDP server. The socket program running on the
PC establishes a communication connection with the
Serial Server .
The data is sent directly to and from the serial port on the server. When
using UDP protocol the server can be configured to broadcast data to
and receive data from multiple IP addresses.
Virtual COM Mode
Install Virtual COM Mode allows the user to add a driver, to provide a
virtual COM port on the computer. The new COM port shows up in the
Device Manager. Windows programs using standard Windows API
calls are able to interface to virtual COM ports. When a program on the
PC opens the new COM port, it communicates with the remote serial
device connected to one of the ports on the
Serial Server .
After connection, the LAN is transparent to the program and serial
device. Applications are able to work just as if the serial device is
connected directly to a physical COM port on the computer. The virtual
COM port software converts the application’s data into IP packets,
sends it across the network to the
Serial Server , which converts the IP
packet back to serial data and sends the data out a serial port located on
the
Serial Server .
To use this mode, the Serial Server must be set to either TCP/server or
UDP/server with a designated communication port number. The virtual
COM driver is the TCP or UDP client.