American Fibertek Net I/O N-664 - Manual (Page 37)

37
The hardware baud rate for each port can be selected from 0 to 57600 bps. This
controls the rate at which each hardware port receives and transmits data. It does not
affect the rate at which information is transmitted over the network.
IP address specifies the address of the target N-664 on which there will be a port which
this serial port is to link to. This address may be up to 15 characters long and must be in
dotted-quad format. An IP address is required for client mode and must contain the
network IP address of the device the client will connect to. In server mode the IP
address is optional. If an IP address is provided in server mode the server port will only
accept incoming connections from that address.
The port number indicates which port on the target device the N-664 will attempt to
connect to in client mode. Note that these numbers refer to the number of the serial port
as indicated on the device and web screen, not the IP port number. This number has no
function in server mode.
The flow control setting is used to control the function of the CTS/RTS pins when the
port is configured in RS232 mode. With flow control set to ‘Hardware’ the RTS output
pin on each port will only be asserted when that port is connected to a destination that
can receive data, and the port will only transmit data when the CTS input pin is asserted.
With flow control set to ‘None’, the RTS pin will be asserted all the time and the CTS
input pin will be ignored.
The ‘Echo to local port’ function allows serial data received on one port to be
automatically forwarded to another port on the same device. This is useful when
attaching a network connection to monitor an existing serial communications link
between two devices.
Procedure to link serial ports on two Net I/O devices together
The serial port function of the N-664 is intended to be used with two or more N-664
devices on a network, where a serial port on one N-664 is linked to a serial port on
another N-664. Each port on a N-664 can be linked to a different N-664, or all four can
be linked to separate ports on the same target N-664. The only restriction is that a port
cannot be targeted to another port on the same unit, and client and server ports must be
linked together in one-to-one pairings.
To link serial ports on two N-664 devices, you must designate one port on one device as
the Slave, and one port on the other device as the Client. The Client port must be
configured with the IP address of the Server, and the port number of the port on the
server being connected to. The Server port may either be configured with the IP
address of the Client, or set to ‘0.0.0.0’.
It is recommended that both ports in a client-server pair be set to the same hardware
mode and the same baud rate. Setting different baud rates between the two ports is
permissible, but not recommended as characters may be dropped if data is coming in to
the higher speed port faster than they can be transmitted out of the lower speed port.