Using the Quatech Serial Port Server

beelzerob

Senior Member
The original thread for this dealt with the ebay deal for picking one up, and since then has become the catchall for all things Quatech. This thread is devoted to using the Quatech serial port devices, in particular the QSE-100D 4-port IP box. But feel free to post about any Quatech device.
 
My particular issue is that numerous devices I try to use with the quatech end up disconnecting from CQC, usually as a result of no response from the device I had connected. Soo...it seems like messages just sometimes don't get sent to the device connected to the quatech...or the response is never received.

Among devices that I've had issues with were:

1) Datanab Ai-32
2) OnQ ALC Lighting controller
3) RCS TR-15 HVAC controller
4) Brultech 1240 Power monitor

And a few others I think.

As of 11/09, there were new drivers for the box. As far as I know, I installed those (it was through windows update)...and at first I hoped it had gotten better, but later that night it was just as bad as always....lots of disconnects, and at some point the Datanab just stops responding altogether.

Michael McSharry suggested in the other thread:
This thread is too long to read to know if this has been discussed on not, but I have two suggestions. One is to use the Lantronix rather than the Quatech COM emulation drivers and operate in RAW mode. The second is for the application software to talk directly via IP rather than going through Windows drivers. This direct connection will allow you to manage the connection in a more robust manner based upon the characteritics observed.

Now I just have to figure out where the lantronix drivers are, and who to connected via IP!
 
Lantronix drivers are at http://www.lantronix.com/device-networking...tools/scpr.html. Note that you will be using these in RAW mode so you need to setup the communication parameters directly on the Quatech rather than being setup by the application softrware.

After you install them you will see that the software has a number of setup parameters (e.g. keepalive, timeouts etc) that can be used to satisfy the needs of the endpoint.

I had used it in the past but now just have my applications talk directly via IP and bypass driver and OS update issues.
 
Ok...so the lantronix drivers still create a COM port on the windows PC that the software (CQC) connects to to talk to the device. *OR* I can just talk to the port directly via the IP address of the quatech device and the port (5000 I think, + port number)? What mode do I put the port into to do that, is it still RawTCP? In the help for that mode, it doesn't mention creating a port at 5000 available...it does for "AutoTCP" though.
 
The Quatech will be configured the same way if using the Lantronix driver or using it via IP directly. This will be the RAW mode. In other modes a protocol wrapper is included that allows setting of the communication parameters. Since Lantronix does not know about the Quatech wrapper protocol you will want the Quatech to not use it and operate in RAW mode which is a one-to-one relationship of byte sent to byte delivered to the serial port.

Port 5000...5003 are the default ports for the unit and I have never tried to change these.

I posted my documentation of how I setup and use the Lantronix and Quatech units on the HS board recently at http://board.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=139502. It is the attachment called lanports.zip.
 
Don't know why I didn't think of trying a direct TCP connection, and eliminating the driver. It's how I run things at work. Great suggestion for sure!
 
Well, I gave it a try. I downloaded the Lantronix port redirector. I put the IP address of the Quatech box, and port 5003 to represent serial port #4. I then tried connecting my ALC OnQ driver to the serial port it created via CQC (after having set the port to RawTCP and with appropriate baud settings). However, I just get "Waiting for Comm Resource" from CQC, which means the port is not available for having.

The Lantronix software says "Com Status: Opening" and "Network Status: Verifying that 192.168....:5003 is a valid device."

And then after about 30 seconds it says Closed and Disconnected, and tries again.

Logging the event gives me:
Disconnect: Connection_Invalid
Open: IO_Timeout.
 
Did you disassociate the Quatech hardware port from the Quatech drivers? The Quatech drivers may claim all 4 ports, but dont know since I never used them. What does your setup look like for the Lantronix drivers. If I recall there is an "advanced" button where you configure the modes. For testing you can use something simplier than CQC. Perhaps hyperterm.
 
Oh, that's a good point. Nothing was using the port, but the ports were still there in the Device Manager, which means the Quatech software was still running. I'm not sure how I disassociate the quatech software from the port...I assume just by deleting the port from the Device Manager.

I don't recall an Advanced tab in the lantronix software....but I'll look again.
 
I usually uninstall the Quatech drivers whenever I want to disassociate the serial ports. Why even bother with serial ports tho, couldn't you make the CQC driver use a direct TCP connection, or would that require some major changes to your driver?
 
Well, it wouldn't require *major* changes, and I've done that to one driver previously, so I know how to do it....it's just that it's almost a half dozen drivers I've have to do it to, and so if I didn't have to, that would be the best solution I think. Plus, if I ran into this problem with a driver I hadn't written, then I'd have to modify someone else's code, which I usually try to avoid.

Dan, how do you specifically uninstall the quatech drivers?
 
Well, I went into the device manager, took one of the Quatech ports, right clicked it and selected Uninstall. That made the port go away. I then tried the Lantronix stuff, but it was the same problem as before. Is there something more involved in getting rid of the Quatech hold on the port? I noticed when I rebooted that the port came back in the device manager as a quatech network port.

And I haven't found any "Advanced" type button or tab in the Secure CPR Manager 4.2.2.1 screen.
 
I'll try to find out tonight how to uninstall it, I am pretty sure I have done this before, but I can't remember :wacko:
 
I found these removal instructions, though not for this exact model. I'm sure it is probably a similar process to this.

I checked the .inf files, and found 2 of them, though they weren't the highest numbered. You'll want to look under Multi-port serial adapters and the ports for the file names for the driver itself.
 
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