Laurel Electronics Ethernet-to-RS485 Converter Board for Laurel Electronics 1_8 DIN Instruments - Manual

LAUREL ELECTRONICS INC., 3183-G Airway Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, USA • Tel 714-434-6131 • www.laurels.com 1
LAUREL
ELECTRONICS, INC.
Ethernet-to-RS485 Converter Board for
Laurel Electronics 1/8 DIN Instruments
Features
• Connects a host meter to an Ethernet LAN while also acting as a server for up to 31
Laurel devices on an RS485 network.
• Includes an RJ45 jack for connection to the Ethernet and an RJ11 jack for connection
to the RS485 bus.
• Suitable for all 1/8 DIN Laureate DPMs, counters, timers & remote displays.
• Complemented by free PC-resident Node Manager software and Node-resident web
server software, both of which can discover Nodes and meters.
• Selectable baud rates to 19,200.
• Isolated from meter and power grounds.
Description
Meters on an RS485 bus connected to the Internet via an Ethernet-to-RS485 device server board.
The Laureate Ethernet-to-RS485 Converter Board plugs into
a host 1/8 DIN digital panel meter, counter or timer to provide a
10/100Base-T Ethernet interface via an industry-standard RJ45
jack. It also provides an RJ11 jack for interface to an RS485 bus,
which can support up to 30 additional Laurel meters equipped
with Laurel's RS485 interface board. That board features dual
RJ11 connectors for RS485 daisy-chaining using commercial 6-
wire RJ11 data cables with no need for a hub.
Discovery and setup of multiple Nodes on a LAN and multiple
meters on an RS485 bus is easily achieved via PC-resident Node
Manager software or Node-resident web server software.
Both methods automatically discover all Nodes on a LAN or
WAN, plus any devices connected to each Server Node via an
RS485 bus. They are used to configure each Node, such as
setting communication parameters, naming the Node and asso-
ciated devices, entering email addresses for alarm notification
and data requests, selecting the Node's time zone for time-
stamping of emails and streaming data, and upgrading firmware.
Once configuration data has been stored in flash memory of all
Nodes, the PC can be disconnected. Details are in our Ethernet
Manual.
Data can be sent by Laurel Nodes in the form of real-time
stream data upon request or in the form of emails. Emails can
be sent in response to email requests from the host computer,
periodically, or when devices encounter an alarm condition or
go off-line.
On a Wide Area Network (WAN), such as the Internet, the host
computer is outside of the LAN and therefore must know the
public IP address of the LAN router to discover the Laurel Nodes.
Built-in DHCP server capability allows Laurel Nodes to con-
stitute themselves into a network and to be connected directly
to a host computer when no router or dedicated DHCP server is
present, as illustrated below. When a Node fails to find a DHCP
server that responds to its request for a private IP address, it
assigns one. When several Nodes fail to receive a Private IP
address, they mutually agree to make one of the Nodes a
temporary DHCP server that assigns a Private IP address to
each device on the network.
Easy connection of an RS485 bus with Laureate meters to a PC via an Ethernet cable.
No need for a separate router or dedicated DHCP server.