RS232 monitoring doesn't work on my router

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dziugss

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Oct 19, 2011
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I'm a quality engineer and my job is to test the functionality of routers. Right now I'm testing a router with an RS232 link and I recently acquired a USB to RS232 cable so I decided to test this function. MY METHOD:

In the router's WebUI there is a section on RS232 where you can select your desired configurations. A screenshot of that: http://imgur.com/Ht9PaIH . In my attempt to monitor the router I use Baseblock ComTest Pro, but as I attempt to get information from the router I get a communication error response that says: "No response received". Here's a screenshot of that: http://imgur.com/dUJadIX .

So the process seems pretty simple: you enable RS232 on your router, connect the cable, install the driver, make sure the setting in ComTest, router and the cable are the same, and you should be able to get results, but as you've witnessed, in my case that's not true. I must be missing something, maybe some other settings should be configured for the RS232 link to work? Any ideas?
 
Solution
jsmithepa
What I suspect is, development made this thing with old-age, real RS232 development tools. When you want to use a modern OS with a USB adapter, because modern PC/laptops don't have RS232 ports any more, some software adjustment need to be made and to development at this time it's not on their priority list.

All you can do is, find a laptop with a real RS32 port, verify it works, and throw them back at development: VERIFIED WORKS WITH REAL RS232 PORT but DOESNT WORK VIA USB ADAPTER.
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BuddhaSkoota

BuddhaSkoota

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Aug 16, 2014
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I've had to do something similar, and had to find the right Com port by trying each one. Have you tried this?

wAzDtTk.png
 
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dziugss

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Good idea, only problem is that I work for the vendor and I'm the one they send these problems to and I have to find the solutions to them, haha.
 
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jsmithepa

jsmithepa

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First off, who uses RS232 these days? U guys still putting out a product with this port? I would still talk to development, ask them (or rather tell them if u dare), customers' machines don't have RS232 ports any more, the best we can expect them to do is use a run-of-the-mill RS232 to USB adapter and as such, are you guys programming this thing using standard Windows API right? You are not accessing the port directly or expecting the customer to use a custom cable a-la APC and fail to document it right?
 
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dziugss

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Well, this particular router is of a series, called series 9 (I don't think I can actually give out this information, so this is a made up name). The main difference between this one and other series 9 routers is that this one has GPS, RS232 and RS485 in addition to everything that other series 9 routers have. It's a fairly new product and I was one of the people responsible for the documentation and I can tell you - the manual is still pretty full of holes, in my opinion at least. RS232 being one of them. So I agree with you that it's pretty absurd that this sort of thing doesn't have the proper documentation. But concerning the popularity of RS232, our routers aren't meant for simple everyday home use, they are being marketed for professional use and being sold in large quantities. So because they released a router with RS232, I suspect there is a need for it in industrial use. But yeah, it's pretty absurd that I'm having trouble getting any information on this from my colleagues. I'll probably register this as a bug and pass it through to other people.
 
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bill001g

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Aug 9, 2012
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I think most commercial network equipment still has the option for serial. It is so nice when the router is really messed up and there is no way you are going to get a web browser to talk to it.

I have not used the software you are talking about but I have had massive issues with USB based serial adapters. Never figured out why it has happened on just about every brand I have had. You get ports that just stop working many times having to remove the adapter and reboot. They also would constantly create new devices on new port numbers. I now have a old laptop that still have physical serial ports...running winxp. It seems to never have any issues.

When I am really desperate we have old terminal servers laying around that you can telent into and it will map the session to a serial port.

I would try a actual serial port and see if it works better
 
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jsmithepa

jsmithepa

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Jun 14, 2014
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What I suspect is, development made this thing with old-age, real RS232 development tools. When you want to use a modern OS with a USB adapter, because modern PC/laptops don't have RS232 ports any more, some software adjustment need to be made and to development at this time it's not on their priority list.

All you can do is, find a laptop with a real RS32 port, verify it works, and throw them back at development: VERIFIED WORKS WITH REAL RS232 PORT but DOESNT WORK VIA USB ADAPTER.
 
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Solution
D

dziugss

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Oct 19, 2011
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This seems to be the case. I haven't confirmed it yet, but I asked around and people who actually achieved a successful connection with RS232 used a regular RS232 cable not one with USB.
 
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