[AG-TECH] RS 232 control of cameras and projectors

[Brian Chee]

Check out www.lantronix.com their terminal servers can have software
installed that will make the ports on the terminal server appear as virtual
com ports on the computer.

Or you can use USB ports and get a multiport USB to Serial adapter like
those made by "Inside Out Networks" I'm using the Edge Port/4 to solve my
lack of serial port problems.

/brian chee

University of Hawaii ICS Dept
Advanced Network Computing Lab
1680 East West Road, POST rm 311
Honolulu, HI  96822
808-956-5797 voice, 877-284-1934 fax

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jon I Johansson" <jon.johansson at ualberta.ca>
To: <ag-tech at mcs.anl.gov>
Sent: Thursday, December 04, 2003 2:54 PM
Subject: [AG-TECH] RS 232 control of cameras and projectors


>
> I'm thinking about connecting our cameras and projectors
> to a computer and controlling them through RS-232 but
> there seem to be some problems with that idea:
>
> I have 4 computers with 2 serial ports each and
> 10 serial connections to make -
>
>    4 projectors
>    4 cameras (sony VISCA)
>    1 Gentner
>    1 Switch
>
> Ok, so the cameras are supposed to be able to be daisy chained
> and I'm left with 7 connections to make. I would really like
> to be able to control all of this stuff from a single machine
> with two serial ports, is that possible? If it is possible,
> is it worth the trouble? The cameras and projectors can be
> controlled with remotes but the operator may be sitting too
> far from a device for that to work.
>
> My limited understanding of serial ports is that they are
> pretty much dedicated to the connected device but maybe
> there is a way around this?
>
> If anyone has done this sort of thing I would appreciate
> their comments.
>
> Thank you,
> Jon.
>
> --
> Jon I Johansson             *  Research Computing Support
> jon.johansson at ualberta.ca   *  Computing and Network Services
> Tel.: (780) 492-9304        *  University of Alberta
> Fax.: (780) 492-1729        *  Edmonton, Alberta, CANADA
>