In my line of work I end up integrating lots of different pieces of equipment to get services on the satellites. This includes providing monitoring and alarming in case of equipment failure and one of the things we do a lot of get status information from kit, some of which is old and may not be able to provide SNMP traps. For this we use serial to IP converters.

So I realised the other day that my fantastic Xeon 32 core machine is running out of USB ports. How can I be running out of USB ports you ask? Well to connect my LP100A, KPA500, KAT500 etc. to the computer, they all need Serial to USB converters. So after working on a project at work to connect an old satellite modem to our monitoring system I used a Moxa Serial to IP converter, and I had one of those light bulb moments… free up some USB ports and get rid of those USB drivers which cause latency on the PC and move it to the IP world.

I found a new-old model Moxa Nport 5610 on Ebay. 16 serial ports to IP, more than enough to keep me going for some time. So I have been playing with that getting it to work, and now that I have the correct cable RS232 DB9 Male to RJ45 pin connections its working like a treat. I can now get some of those USB ports back!

Moxa Nport5610