[time-nuts] ad-hoc I/O

[Richard (Rick) Karlquist]

The XT-Nano-XXL looks very interesting, and the price is good.

With these kinds of hardware devices, the question always
arises as to what to use on the other end to talk to the
device.  I see that ak-nord has a virtual com port driver,
which many vendors have.  It would also be interesting to
see if two of the XT-Nano-XXL devices could talk directly
to each other without any computers being involved.  The
manual talks about a "tunnel" mode, but shows the Nano
connected to the box with 2 serial ports.

The other problem I have with these kinds of devices is
what to do about software to talk to them.  Some devices
come with free software that has basic functionality to
debug the hardware.  What I would really like to do is
to get an API and build a simple interface program with radio
buttons, etc that control relays etc.  The problem is
that I am not a programmer.  I keep looking for a tutorial
that explains how to do simple Visual Basic or something,
but I consistently run into two showstoppers.  1.  The tutorials
cover only the VB or C++ language, and not the mechanics
of compiling, linking, libraries, and .dll files.  2.
The tutorials assume the program talks only to the "console"
(keyboard mouse and monitor).  No discussion of connecting
to the LAN and interfacing with the hardware.  What I
have seen written about these topics is incomprehensible
to me as an analog engineer.

Rick Karlquist, N6RK

Christian Vogel wrote:
> Hi Dave,
> 
>> Likewise, there are also versions of MCU's with TCP stacks available
>> too, as well as things like this...
>> http://www.lantronix.com/device-networking/embedded-device-servers/xport.html 
>>
> ...
> 
>> Basically, an embedded TCP/IP<>Serial adapter, with bells on!  So you
>> can use existing device designs that would use a serial link to the
>> host, and "add" network connectivity for that need, with no (well,
>> little) design overhead.
> 
> When I was looking for something simmilar, a relative recommended
> 
>   http://www.ak-nord.de/ak/product_info.php?products_id=33
> 
> which he uses at work to access interfaces internal to their product 
> during testing. It should be what the "xport" is, but adding i2c and spi 
> ports. Unfortunately, I didn't find time to procure one, or even test it.
> 
>         Chris
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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