Waveshare RS232/485/422 to RJ45 Ethernet Module, TCP/IP to Serial, with POE Function, Bi-Directional Transparent Transmission, Suitable for Data Acquisition, Intelligent Instrument Monitoring, etc

I used to use Lantronx Xpress DR's a lot, this is a great replacement. The software and documentation needs some love and attention, I struggled with a issue for an hour or two, it was a broken wire (not the devices fault) but the documentation was hard to follow so I was not sure if I was missing something on that end.I love the MQTT functionality.So far its been running really reliable. I am feeding power to this from a POE Stripper to bring the voltage down to 12VDC to also feed my end deviceNote: If you use MQTT it wipes the web interface

I have probably used over 20 of these devices. They are solidly built and reliable once you get them running. There is a utility software you can download from their site to help you find them on your network and get them set up. This is useful if you have multiples on your network. I do have trouble getting a hostname to stick. The most difficult part of these serial servers is getting them set up. After I get them configured, I have had no issues. You can also configure them through their built in web page. I have gone both routes. I obviously keep buying them - but one star off for the not as intuitive software and the clunky set up.

So the documentation isn't great, so here's the steps I took to connect this to my MQTT server (which took about an hour of testing to figure out):You'll want to start by grabbing a RS232 to USB cable and go over to the Waveshare website and look up the support page for "RS232/485/422 TO POE ETH (B)". On the page there's a link to the VirCom English software you'll want.Hook up the device to the RS232 and POE, plug the USB end of the cable into the PC, launch the software, hit cancel if there's a Windows Firewall popup (at least you shouldn't need to allow it for initial setup), then click the Device button. Double-click your device from the list (there's probably only going to be one listed), then set the IP Mode to DHCP (this will save some headache in the long run unless you really want a static IP for some reason). You can also tweak any other settings you might need to change (in particular, make sure the Baud rate, etc. matches whatever you plan to hook up to it). Click Modify Device to save this setting.Next, you'll want to create an empty folder somewhere on your hard drive that you'll be able to easily find later. Then back in the Device Settings screen, click the "Firmware/Config" button. In the top section "Webpage Directly Download Mode", click the [...] button on the right and then navigate to the empty folder you created. Click the "Clear All" button, then click the "MQTT Config" button, which will bring up a (thankfully pretty straightforward) dialog box to fill out your MQTT Server settings. Click save, then at the bottom of the previous screen click "Download" to update the settings on the device.At least in my case, this was everything that was needed. You can test by launching PuTTY or similar - any button press in the terminal window will generate a MQTT message in the publish topic, and any messages sent to the subscribed topics will be printed in the terminal window. At this point, you should be able to uphook the RS232 cable and hook up the gateway to whatever device you were wanting to use it with.As for an actual review... the price is absolutely right on this thing and it's got some nice features, so I can't give it too bad of a review. I am knocking off a star because of the somewhat confusing documentation, the lack of options available from the web UI (no MQTT settings, for example), and needing to use a somewhat sketchy program to configure it.

There's no power adapter and no manual.

I was able to get into the web interface and program this unit once I found the IP address. I believe I had to use 192.1681.254 to access the web interface after factory reset. It was not 192.168.1.200 like the manufacturer website suggested. Accurate documentation turns this into a 5 star review.Otherwise, it did exactly what I wanted it to do. The POE functionality does what it’s supposed to. Keep in mind it uses 48V POE. Most enterprise equipment switching does this by default. At the end of the day, it is used as a print server for my ImageWriter II.You also can’t rename the device out of the box. Legend has it there is a special firmware that unlocks this capability. I only have one of these, so I’m not losing sleep over it.

There is zero documentation with this device. Not even a small quick start. I can't even find a default IP. Their website says it is 192.168.1.200 but that does not work. defaulted it and still does not work. Ridiculous that I have to spend a lot of time hunting for the most basic info