B&B Electronics ESP904 - Manual (Page 7)

Introduction
Manual Documentation Number: ESP904-0504 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 Park – Oranmore, Galway, Ireland – Ph +353 91-792444 – Fax +353 91-792445 – www.bb-europe.com
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 ESP904, which converts the IP packet back to serial data and sends the
data out a serial port located on the ESP904.
To use this mode, the ESP904 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.
Paired Mode
Paired Mode is also called serial tunneling. In this mode any two serial
devices that can communicate with a serial link will be able to communicate
using two ESP904s and the LAN.
Two ESP904s are connected to a network, one configured as a TCP or UDP
client and the other as a TCP/UDP server. When setting up the server the
remote IP address section must contain the address of the client. This will
allow the client’s IP address to pass the IP address-filtering feature of the
server. Conversely, the Remote IP address of the client must contain the
server’s IP address. Both communication port numbers must be the same.
Heart Beat
The Heart Beat protocol connection provides a reliable communications
connection in Virtual COM Port Mode or with Paired Connection Mode .
This feature restores the connection if communications are temporarily lost at
either end due to loss of power or Ethernet connection.
Without this feature a device that loses a connection and stops
communicating would not be able to reconnect without human intervention.
A TCP data connection can be lost when there is a power failure or
temporary loss of an Ethernet connection on either the client or server. If a
loss occurs the Heart Beat feature will try to reconnect the TCP data
connection every five seconds until communications is established again. The
Heart Beat feature is available for use in
Virtual COM Port Mode and Paired
Connection mode. This is not available when using a UDP application.
Introduction
4 Chapter 1 Manual Documentation Number: ESP904-0504
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 Park – Oranmore, Galway, Ireland – Ph +353 91-792444 – Fax +353 91-792445 – www.bb-europe.com
ESP904 Quick Start Guide
Hardware Setup
Required hardware:
• A PC operating on an Ethernet LAN.
• A serial device with a RS-232 interface.
• Network and serial cables, as required.
Step 1: Connect the ESP904 to the network using a standard network cable
Step 2: Connect the ESP904 to the RS-232 serial device.
N N o o t t e e : :
If the serial device is configured as a DCE use a straight-through serial cable. If
the serial device is configured as a DTE use a crossover (null modem) cable.
Figure 2. Quick Start Hardware Setup
Software Installation
Using the CD included with the ESP904, install the VLINX ESP Manager
software on the configuring computer.