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Any way to create "virtual serial ports" for use with a serial device server ?

Started by microdrome, 2009.07.26, 18:55:09

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microdrome

I am trying to connect and use a serial device server -quatech QSE100D-
Unfortunately quatech has no driver for the "virtual serial port" and i am unable to
find anything similar (other brands)

Any suggestions ?

USB is not really full option because i want to connect to another location through the internet and access my X10 devices
And usb converters give extra problems- except the quatech one-


Besides i want everything seperate from my computer (upgrading to a new computer is very messy with all that 20+ cables attached)

Peter

RobertM

Though I do not see OS/2 drivers for it, they do mention "other operating systems" - perhaps you may wish to use their driver/manual request page and ask.

It does seem that the model located at the link below has OS/2 drivers (though I do not suspect they will work with the model you have):
http://www.quatech.com/catalog/rs232_upci.php

Without a little more information (probably from them), it would be difficult to create such a driver. Though access to the Linux source may help.

Robert


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Kirk's 5 Year Mission Continues at:
Star Trek New Voyages
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microdrome

O.K> Thanks

I will give the quatech request a try ( they have helped me in the past ) so who knows .....

If that fails i can use another method for remote control - the tunneling mode -
but for that i have to connect the server to a real serial port ... and that is just what i am short of.

Only a usb port server is an option for more local ports but then i have a similar problem - no drivers for the usb2.0 device (which i already have) ,only the 1.1 which i cannot find for sale (ebay) at the moment (but maybe later )

And porting from linux , who can(will) do such a thing - i certainly not -
But i am willing to pay if there is someone who can.

Peter

ivan

If you want more serial ports then, if you have some USB ports then get a serial to USB adapter and use that.  My notebook doesn't have any serial ports available - something intel seems to want to do away with - but I have several pieces of equipment that connect via serial ports so I use several cheap adapters to do the job. 

microdrome

Quote from: ivan on 2009.07.26, 23:27:52
If you want more serial ports then, if you have some USB ports then get a serial to USB adapter and use that.  My notebook doesn't have any serial ports available - something intel seems to want to do away with - but I have several pieces of equipment that connect via serial ports so I use several cheap adapters to do the job. 

Ivan ,i have just edited my orginal post - i messed the original one up- and that also explains why usb converter are no option.
Thanks anyway

Peter

ivan

Peter, I've just pulled down the data sheet for the QSE100D.

From reading that you only need the 'setup utility' to update the firmware and maybe set the IP address.  It also appears to have a web server that should allow you to do all the setup you need using firefox.

I have here several pieces of equipment that say they need windows drivers but they work very well with OS/2 - the windows drivers are needed by windows because it doesn't have the necessary networking built in - I control them by telnet much quicker than using the windows interface.  For the one that I couldn't get at by telnet initially, I used win xp in virtual box to get in and enable the web interface now control is via firefox.

BTW USB2 should be backwards compatible with USB1.1

microdrome

Quote from: ivan on 2009.07.27, 15:30:39
Peter, I've just pulled down the data sheet for the QSE100D.

From reading that you only need the 'setup utility' to update the firmware and maybe set the IP address.  It also appears to have a web server that should allow you to do all the setup you need using firefox.

I have here several pieces of equipment that say they need windows drivers but they work very well with OS/2 - the windows drivers are needed by windows because it doesn't have the necessary networking built in - I control them by telnet much quicker than using the windows interface.  For the one that I couldn't get at by telnet initially, I used win xp in virtual box to get in and enable the web interface now control is via firefox.

BTW USB2 should be backwards compatible with USB1.1


I better rephrase :

acessing through firefox is not the problem ,i can configure the device there.

But i cannot access the ports from my os/2 machine ,it needs "virtual ports" - ports that behave the same as those on the computer but are in fact the remote ports on the device server.

And for the usb device server ,you need the appropiate drivers from quatech ,unfortunately they stopped development after the 1.1 device (which is not compatible)

Thanks for trying ,

ivan

Peter,  a question.  When you say you need virtual ports do you mean something like the SIO virtual modem or are you having a problem with COM.SYS only seeing 4 com ports?

I ask this because IBM released a COM.SYS that would 'see' 16 ports.  I used it on a clients machine that I fitted an 8 port PCI card.  All worked without problems and are still working as far as I know - at least the machinery is still working without problems.

microdrome

It is almost identical to the vmodem ,only the command mode should be left out since the device server does not give responces back .
Still i have tried it ,but no go - only dialing and then time out.

rudi

Quote from: microdrome on 2009.07.26, 18:55:09
Unfortunately quatech has no driver for the "virtual serial port" and i am unable to
find anything similar (other brands)

I have never seen any vendor for this type of devices that supplied an OS/2
driver. Usually they have this for Windows only. If you are lucky, they also got
a Linux version and if you are even more lucky, they provide the source code
for it and/or a documentation for the network protocol they use. If the latter
information is available, it's not too hard for a skilled programmer to write an
OS/2 solution for that. Usually that would be a driver that exposes the necessary
parts of the COM port IOCTLs and forwards the requests to a ring3 daemon
process that maintains the TCP/IP connection(s) to the device(s). Also, if the
device is going to be used by a specific application program for which you have
control over the source code, it might be easier to implement direct TCP/IP access
to the device without the COM-port emulation. Of course these solutions are
vendor/device specific and in case that thingy dies, you have to find an exact
replacement.


RobertM

Quote from: rudi on 2009.07.28, 08:21:34
Quote from: microdrome on 2009.07.26, 18:55:09
Unfortunately quatech has no driver for the "virtual serial port" and i am unable to
find anything similar (other brands)

I have never seen any vendor for this type of devices that supplied an OS/2
driver.

There are at least a few. NEC I think was one. As OS/2 was *THE* premiere faxing and voicemail system "back in the day" (and honestly, still is - if only manufacturers still made such hardware for it), there were a variety of cards - serial, modem, fax/modem, and voice modem - that supported OS/2. Sadly, most of those were "complete setups" so getting the card required getting the voicemail system or serial "controller" unit and external voice/fax box to connect to the serial output card.

OS/2 had been supporting up to 64 line serial/fax/voice/modem installations for ages (since OS/2 Warp 3.0 if memory serves) - something other operating system dont seem very capable of doing without a LOT of additional hardware/performance. A standard Pentium or Pentium II level machine sufficed "back in the day" - not so much anymore on Windows.

This, btw, is an area I always thought that Serenity/Mensys should have been aggressively pursuing since an ancient OS/2 fax/voice/com system still can outperform newer Windows systems. And all it would seem to take is a set of updated drivers for the newer fax/voice/com boards.




Some of the systems seemed very easy to use... some (like the faxing solutions) were not the most "elegant" (no eye candy, rather bland interfaces - like the versions of multi-modem/line FaxWorks Pro from way back when), but they were (a) quite capable, and in numerous cases (b) supported REXX scripting or C++ programming to interact with them above and beyond their standard feature set.




So, yes, there are (were?) various boards that were supported under OS/2 for large numbers of com ports. And no, it seems very difficult to find them now - or drivers for them - or support for them.

I guess, since current day availability is the issue, that makes your post spot on - though perhaps with a little digging, you can find something a wee bit older that suffices.


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Kirk's 5 Year Mission Continues at:
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microdrome

Indeed ,keep digging remains -
the answer from quatech was simple: we do not have os/2 drivers-

A pity ,but i did not expect anything else.

At least the drivers that are available are of very good quality.
I have tried several usb to serial converters and they all had some problem.
But the quatech works really well and behaves exactly like a legacy com port.

Since i have several serial device servers (very cheap on ebay) the last resort is use 4 of them and use the tunneling mode .

Not elegant ,still need more local ports and a lot of cables .

Still hoping someone has a fresh idea which does not involve writing or porting drivers.

thanks all that took the time to anwer this post

Peter

RobertM

Would a 8 or 16 port serial card work?

If so, check this out... OS/2 drivers abound for these:

http://www.roalan.com/8%20and%2016%20Port%20Serial%20RS232%20PCI%20Cards.htm


Including for the XS800 16 Port RS232 PCI Express (PCIe) Adapter Board


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Kirk's 5 Year Mission Continues at:
Star Trek New Voyages
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microdrome


Would a 8 or 16 port serial card work?

I am sorry ,this will not help ,since i want to get rid of my current multi serial card which is also giving troubles (IRQ conflicts ).

Moving to another computer is a pain , now PCI ,then PCI-e and what next ....
And i want to get rid of all the cables attached .
I prefer to do all printing and other by network connection ,accesable by all computers etc.

And remotely from another location.
Especially my house automation ,done by X10 devices.

And who knows i think up next .....


RobertM

Hmmm... ok, I am a little confused as to your intent. But, what I did for similar was have one computer loaded up with serial and parallel ports (and IDE ports) which everything else used via network. It was my print server and such. 4 IDE controllers (thus 8 ports), 3 LPT ports, and multiple serial ports.

I've found a decent multi-serial option to not be a problem (emphasis on decent) as it usually only uses a couple IRQs, with the rest being handled (the port specific ones) by the chipset on the card.


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Kirk's 5 Year Mission Continues at:
Star Trek New Voyages
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