Controling a serial device via ethernet

>>1236471
Consider esp8266. Now u can have a wifi enabled trackball. 2 bux each.

>>1236471
>serial-to-ethernet adaptors
ethernet is a NETWORKING PROTOCOL
serial is a TRANSMISSION METHOD
Neither of these is what your trackball 'uses', perhaps you mean RS232 which is a PROTOCOL?

if you think you can connect ethernet to rs232 with a simple adapter then you are wrong.

You need an embedded system that can not only receive and decode state of the trackball in both hardware AND application(?) layers as well as host OR push messages onto the network while dealing with the overheads and bookkeeping.

of course it's possible, anything is possible.

>>1236566
I've done this with Ethernet to serial adapters. Just has to be able to handle raw data, and those are hard to find and they are expensive. More expensive than a trackball anyways.

OP how the fuck did that thing plug into a pc with a 10 pin? Pic of the plug?

>>1236566
>>1236570

I should also mention those adapters are basically server/client devices. That's why they work.

File: x_890930b8.jpg (64KB, 500x386px) Image search: [Google]

64KB, 500x386px

>>1236471
>Serial to PS2 adapter
>PS2 to USB adapter
>USB to ethernet adapter
aaand done

RS232 can be ±25V.... ±15 isn't uncommon; if it's got a 12v supply i'd bet you'll see ±12v on the TxD pin.
Use something like a MAX232 to bring that RS232 signal to a TTL/µC-friendly voltage.

Probably going to have to build a driver to parse the serial data coming from that trakball, then format it into something useable.

I'd use a USB-Serial adapter and see what's coming out of the device, then go from there.

I would think that this sort of project would be beat suited for it's own prototype board. If you have an arduino, that would be a good start. You can use its serial capabilities with a MAX232 for trackball interface, then using some 3.3v signal shifters and a ENC28J60 you can then interface with the ethernet. Then you have to code both the arduino as well as a driver layer that converts the ethernet data to a com port datastream that can be used by a serial application.

The whole thing can be prototyped for a few dozen dollars, and if you even get bored of it, at least now you have an ethernet ready arduino that can be used as a long-distance instrument interface for datalogging or something

>>1236882
You are a walking meme