Ethernet to RS232 Cable Adapter NetPort

It depends on the connectors on the devices you have. Netport LAN01 is the DTE version, LAN02 is the DCE version. Both devices are functionally identical but the one is Male-Female (DCE) and the other Female-Male (DTE).

Yes. The Netport connects serial devices to ethernet networks, allowing you to send serial data across the network, using a technique known as serial tunnelling.

The netport can be used in two modes.

• Single Netport mode: the Netport is connected to the PLC. A virtual serial port is installed onto a PC. Software on the PC can then talk to the remote serial device over the network. Whilst theoretically the PLC and the PC can be any distance apart, in practice the distance may introduce some latency into the system. That may be a problem if timings in the communication between the software and PLC are important
• Two Netport mode: the second mode uses two Netports. One Netport is connected to the PLC and it then talks to the second Netport over the network. The second Netport can then be plugged into another device or PC using a serial cable.

Yes this should be possible, but you may need to use 2 Netport adaptors instead of one. The use of a single Netport requires the installation of a software based virtual serial port. The driver software supplied with the Netport that implements the virtual serial port will only work on Microsoft Windows. We would need to know a little more about what you are wanting to achieve before we can give you a definitive answer, please get in touch.

The Netport Adaptor has an in-built web server so the device can be viewed over the Internet. The HTTP port on the Netport is also configurable. Once you have set a different port on the router, you can change the http port no. via the web interface. To do this with the Netport you should open Web Manager, Click on 'Server' and Change the "HTTP Port No' option and set the right port. This option allows the configuration of the web server port number. The valid range is 1-65535 (The default port is 80).

The Netport does not send emails, it simply allows a serial device to connect to an IP network using a process called 'serial tunnelling'. The standard serial data is encapsulated in a TCP/IP packet and transmitted over the network.

The RS232 to serial converter will allow you to effectively move the RS232 interface to anywhere on your network. So you could use whichever application you are now using to read the weighing scale on a PC that is potentially many hundreds of metres away from the weighing scale itself. The only problem I can see is that a web browser can't "browse" the RS232 interface, either a physcial one attached to the weighing scale or a remote virtual RS232 port provided by the RS232 to serial converter software, so I don't believe that would be possible.

You could though use whatever software you currently use from a PC that is not physically attached to the weighing scale.

The bandwidth largely depends upon the speed of the serial port and the nature of the protocol used by your serial device. Asa a result it is difficult to be precise as to the bandwidth that will be used.

In general. the amount of serial data is typically very small and is negligible on an ethernet network.

No. The NetPort is used to connect either two serial port devices or a serial port device and a PC over a network. It wouldn't know how to talk to your network based vacuum sensor.

Yes. The Netport will accept serial traffic, encapsulate it in an Ethernet packet and transmit the data across the network, a process known as 'Ethernet Tunnelling', effectively giving you a long serial connection.