Building A ser2net (Serial to IP) Server

[parkerc]

Pasted from a discussion i had with futzle … (To keep it all together)

@futzle

[quote=“parkerc, post:167, topic:168489”]Does that mean you have your enviR connected to that server and not directly into Vera?

That’s right.

I have seen a number of mentions on Ser2net in this forum and the website itself is sadly not the most explanatory I've seen. It sounds like it provides you with the ability to hold (host) all your phsyical serial devices USB, RS232 and then allow them to be reference-able via an IP and Port combo.

Indeed, that’s what ser2net does (and it’s the only thing ser2net does).

Also there are dedicated pieces of hardware that do the same TCP/Serial bridging. Here are a couple: WIZnet Official - Leading Internet Connectivity Solutions 404 Error

Do you use the plugin created by Guessed ?(http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,2989.msg12655.html#msg12655)

I used to, but then MCV added the ability to connect to a host+port directly into the Luup extensions (luup.io.open()) so I use that instead now in all my plugins.[/quote]

@futzle

[quote=“parkerc, post:169, topic:168489”]Would you be able to share an example of the ser2net.conf line entry you’re using for yours and what I need to do in Vera and your plugin, just so I can get a better idea on what I need to do?

$ cat /etc/ser2net.conf 49402:raw:0:/dev/tty.usbserial:57600,NONE,1STOPBIT,LOCAL

I picked the port number more or less at random. The server is a Mac and it names the serial device /dev/tty.usbserial. You’ll need to change these accordingly.

And here’s the configuration on the Vera.[/quote]

@futzle

[quote=“parkerc, post:171, topic:168489”]Do I need an entry for the USB Port itself (ttyS0) ?

I think that you are mistaken in thinking that ttyS0 has anything to do with the NAS’s USB system. Its name looks more like a regular serial port, probably one that can only be reached by connecting to jumpers on the NAS’s motherboard. (This is very common on embedded hardware.)

How do I open up port 49402 in linux ?

It’s not clear what you mean by “open up”. If you mean, what causes the port to be listened to for incoming connections, then ser2net does that. If you are talking about a firewall on the Linux machine blocking incoming connections, assuming you have one, then you will need to find the firewall configuration and turn off the firewall (seriously, firewalls on Unix machines inside your LAN aren’t any kind of security, just turn them off).

How do I check and ensure that ser2net is running ? - [i](I tried 'ps aux | less' but could not see it) [/i]

That should show ser2net. If it isn’t then ser2net isn’t running. ser2net has some command-line options that will stop it detaching into the background when you run it; these are useful with debugging. You can use ctrl-C to kill a running program in Linux, just as you do in a DOS shell.

Also you can speak to ser2net over the LAN with telnet:

telnet the-nas 49402

For the CurrentCost you’ll see the long XML strings every few seconds.[/quote]