Good morning everyone. I have a ltap mini with RS232 port at a photovoltaic system with an ABB inverter. It has an RS232 port. If I connect the RS232 port of the ltap to the inverter and from a remote network can I access the inverter via vpn as if I were connected to it via rs232?
I saw but it talks about making two routers communicate via serial. I instead have to communicate on one side with the inverter and on the other side via rs232 with a usb serial converter. And the two routers communicate with each other in vpn
2x mikrotik can’t be rs232 bridge via ethernet or vpn
you can use moxa & mikrotik via rfc2217 or raw
pc rs232 → moxa — ethernet rfc2217 — mikrotik ← rs232 inverter
could you specify what moxa device could be used to do this?
probably all nport
must support TCP Client Mode
I think it depends on the actual requirements, a SCADA system may want or need thousands of readings per second, keeping an eye on a solar panel system should be not very demanding and one might do on the (Windows) PC side with a software solution:
https://www.hw-group.com/software/hw-vsp3-virtual-serial-port
On the Mikroptik device side, settings should be something like:
https://jcutrer.com/howto/networking/mikrotik/mikrotik-scada-serial-server
The cost of moxa and similar serial servers seems to me crazy, they are clearly aimed to professional/industry use, and cheaper ones are hard to find, the only one I could find (new) is this one:
https://www.protekna.com/eng/shop/serial-server/mport3101r
at 60 € it is affordable.
The De-311 that you found used should do, here the technical specs:
https://www.moxa.com/en/products/industrial-edge-connectivity/serial-device-servers/general-device-servers/nport-express-series/de-311
are you telling me that if I have the TCP/IP reachability of the remote ltap I can configure it and reach it with this software that creates a virtual serial interface that communicates in TCP/IP with ltap without using the socket? I can find the DE311 for 25 euros, I have already heard of moxa and it works both as a TCP server and as a client.
You asked “can I access the inverter via vpn as if I were connected to it via rs232” which may or may not be what you really need/want.
If you have your PC directly connected to the rs232, do you use a (specific) software to control it?
And if yes, does it use RS232 only?
If this is the case the suggestion by panisk0:
pc rs232 → moxa — ethernet rfc2217 — mikrotik ← rs232 inverter
can be re-written as:
pc rs232 —> TCP client/converter – ethernet rfc2217 — mikrotik ← rs232 inverter
but also as:
pc virtual rs232 to TCP software → — ethernet rfc2217 — mikrotik ← rs232 inverter
Will that specific software I posted a link to, be capable of doing that?
It should, and being it free, you can try it at no cost.
You can use the VSPE or one or the other software tools listed on the Wiki (but they are Commercial/need a licence):
https://wiki.mikrotik.com/Serial_Port_Usage#Accessing_a_serial_device_as_if_it_were_physically_connected_to_your_PCs.27_COM_port
Accessing a serial device as if it were physically connected to your PCs’ COM port
Perhaps you are using a software to access your serial device that can only talk to COM ports like COM1? Want to use this to access your device when it’s located somewhere else?
The usual way would be to purchase something like a LanTronix or Moxa serial server, but you can do this for free with RouterOS, too!
RFC 2217 defines a protocol to transfer data from/to a serial device over TCP. Combine this with a software driver on your PC that presents this network connection as a “virtual COM port” and your done!
There are lots of software solutions for the PC side to do this, most of them commercial. Some example tools you can use:
…
Of course this is Windows only, on Linux there should be sercd and ser2net that could be suitable.