Does anyone know of any Mini PCI Serial Cards (RS-232) that work with Mikrotik ROS. A multiport version would be best but a single port version would work if that is all that is supported.
Thanks
Phil
And you plan to use it for… 
We are going to be using it to connect up some radio systems that are serial radios. We need it so we can connect to the serial radios over our High Speed back hauls that are IP based. Basically it will be a multiport serial to ethernet converter.
And in RouterOS you will connect it like… wheelchair/fridge?
Routerboard will have an IP, Say X.X.X.X and that IP will point to a port on the Routerboard Say Serial1.
port remote-access add local-address=X.X.X.X port=serial1
Then when you connect to X.X.X.X say through telnet it will send that on to the serial port and you can then communicate with the radio. We have done this many times with Cisco routers but we are looking for a cheaper solution on this project.
I just need to know if anyone has any multiport Serial cards that work with ROS on a routerboard.
I remember the type of modem you’re talking about.
Do you need RS232, X.21 or V.35?
As far as I know there aren’t any miniPCI cards that support these technologies.
There are some things that you still have to use a Cisco for.
1601s are cheap on ebay.
In which RouterOS? Have you at least tried it with 1 serial port?
If that really works somehow, what I doubt, then I suggest you buy some old 200. boards and use simple PCI->com card.
I need RS232. I have found several Mini PCI cards that have 4 RS232 ports on them but I don’t know if ROS will recognize them and be usable. That is what I really need to know. Are there any cards that are known to work with ROS.
I have tested it with one serial port and it works as expected so I know it will work. I just hope there is a card out there that will be usable by ROS.
Check out the supported hardware wiki.
routerboards do not support hardware flow control-I’m not sure if x86 ROS does.
x86 doesn’t either.
You could use a simple Linux old x86 machine with a PCI multi port RS232 card, and a deamon like Socat to connect IP sessions with serial ports ?? Seems that you can get a working solution for less than 400 $.
You could even use Windows XP to do this, there is now RS232 to IP connectors availables for free, like “Virtual serial port Emulator” from Eterlogic.
http://www.eterlogic.com/Products.VSPE.html
The x86 licence is free.
Seems to me that it will be at least 4 times cheaper than the cheaper Cisco router.
Mikrotik is designed for efficient low cost routing and Wifi and do this very nice, using it for other tasks is not easy because Router OS is a closed system.
The Problem is that this is a solar site so we have very limited power and a server or even a cisco router takes a lot more power than a single mikrotik. Also I don’t need hardware flow control for these radios. Since no one seems to know if there are any cards out there that will work with ROS, I will have to do some more research and see what i can come up with. Thanks for all your help.
what about using a usb hub with multiple usb to serial adapters?
I never understood the level of peoples technical knowledge. You somehow figured out how to transmit a radio thru Routerboards com port, but you can’t figure out which devices do you need and if they would work. How come?
Just take some CF or HDD with RouterOS x86 and boot it in different Mainboards, try the com port there. If it works - it works! Same Mini PCI or PCI adapters you can use in the “old” Routerboard 230! Just need the RB71 card to make it more compact if using PCI.
I have tested it with one serial port and it works as expected so I know it will work. I just hope there is a card out there that will be usable by ROS.
I would love to see that “in action”. Never thought that MT has something like that in it. Yesterday I looked in 4.6 and 3.20, didn’t understood how you get some date from TCP to Com, will try with a real device connected tomorrow. If this works, it means I could even monitor and configure some frequency converters which are in opposite side of my gold-priced-gasoline country 
P.S. Why 4 com ports? 4 different radiostations?
I never understood the level of peoples technical knowledge. You somehow figured out how to transmit a radio thru Routerboards com port, but you can’t figure out which devices do you need and if they would work. How come?
I have found several devices that will work for what I need, The questions I am asking is does Mikrotik OS recognize them? The reason I just don’t test them is that I don’t have any of them and would really like to know if they work before I go out and spend hundreds or thousands of dollars buying these MiniPCI cards and hoping that they will work. If I am going to do that I might as well just by a Cisco that I know works and move on.
If you want to know how it works maybe try reading this article.
http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Serial_Port_Usage
Changeip - thank you for your suggestion. That may be a good solution to what I am trying to accomplish.
I can’t see where you posted which cards you were looking at.
Here is a mini PCI serial card :
http://www.globalamericaninc.com/product_info.php?products_id=1507603
You should be able to get a low power system (about 20w) using this card on a mini-itx low power motherboard using an ATOM processor.
Those cards will not work on Routerboards i think because you will not have a Router OS driver.
worked fine for me with ‘special-login’ feature - when you connect via Telnet/SSH with some special username and get connected to COM port which has some managed switch on it =) ‘remote-access’ is the same but you don’t need to authenticate
If you can give me more details, maybe i can help.