Ethernet convertors offer more bang for your buck

Kanda reckons the new Pro Series serial to Ethernet convertor units from Sena are a cut above anything else on the market.

Kanda reckons the new Pro Series serial to Ethernet convertor units from Sena are a cut above anything else on the market.

The serial connections, network interface and control and management are amazingly sophisticated for their price range.

Kanda has been supplying Ethernet connectivity products for over five years and during that time the typical "bang for your buck" has increased enormously, just like in the computer industry in general.

But the new Pro Series Serial to Ethernet convertor unit from Sena takes the features you get for a low price to a new level.

They are low cost units with flexibility built-in to make them do exactly what is needed, while remaining easy to use.

On the serial side, these units support RS422 and RS485 as well as the standard RS232 and have user settable baud rates from 75bit/s right up to 230Kbit/s.

As well as giving access to all signals, they allow software flow control (Xon/Xoff) as well as the more normal hardware flow control, which makes them usable in many more applications.

Serial port buffering allows swifter data transfer without losses.

The serial port also has surge protection, again an uncommon feature in low cost units.

According to Kanda, Sena has really excelled itself on the network interface with so many features that no job is difficult with them.

For a start, the units support 10Base-T and 100Base-T for faster data throughput.

Then they add every protocol that could be needed, including TCP, HTTP and SMTP for Internet based applications.

Security and logging are vitally important in most jobs and as well as versatile logging of all system events, the units support SSL, SSH and HTTPS protocols to give a really secure system.

Management of the units is another area where all the bases are covered.

In addition to the usual serial console and Telnet/SSH interfaces using programs such as Hyperterm and Putty, the Pro Series also come with Windows based HelloDevice management software for really easy setup.

If users prefer to use the Internet instead, control can also be done via the web.

The units also include a full function Ethernet modem with AT command set support to facilitate phone-based applications.

They also include COM port redirector software that allows existing (or new) software to communicate with remote serial ports as though they are local COM ports.

This means that the user can deal with virtual serial ports rather than IP addresses - unless they want to.

Finally, if more than one serial port is needed, they come in one, four or eight serial port variants, giving an amazingly low cost per port.

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