[rescue] LED Signboard

[Jona Sperty]

"Jonathan C. Patschke" <jp at celestrion.net> wrote:
On Fri, 1 Aug 2003, Jona Sperty wrote:

> The symon board attaches to the symon server with your standard cat 5
> cable or serial to enet converter.

That must be quite an interesting converter.


** it IS very interesting! There are many products like this, here is the one lots of symon folks use.

http://www.netserial.net/products_nport.htm


> You can't program the board thru the serial port directly ( as I have
> been told) and you do need the symon call center software that runs
> on windows.

I believe you've been told incorrectly, as the call center software
clearly programs the board directly through the serial port.

**The symon program must be between you and the board. Unless you know pin-outs and the language use to program the board, there is no programming from a direct serial console type connection. I watch people do this all the time and I have access to all of the stuff that controls the board directly over my head.

 The
problem is one of knowing the protocol. Or, rather, the problem is one
of not being able to get the protocol out of the vendor because they'd
rather sell you their software that only runs on Windows.

**That is true, but I can probably get you a copy of the software! That makes it less fun though....

This is when a vampire tap on the serial line is very useful. I'd like
to see something like this reverse-engineered, since being able to pop
system data onto an LED display would be really neat in a busy machine
room.

Even just scrolling console messages would be neat. Or, how about an
uptime clock accurate to 14 significant digits?

-- 
Jonathan Patschke ) "We're Texans. We figure out ways to do these
Elgin, TX ( things..." --Bill Bradford