ConnectPort TS MEI - EIA-485 over 8p cabling?

Serial Servers & Infrastructure Mangement ConnectPort TS/LTS
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1

I’m evaluation ConnectPort TS 16 MEI to migrate from PortServer TS 16 MEI.

It looks like the altpin mode for 4-wire EIA-485 is not supported anymore.

Is there a way to use 8p cabling for 4-wire EIA-485?

2

Yes, the following should work fine:

RJ45 8 pin:

Pin 1: – (minus) signal

Pin 2: NA

Pin 3: GND

Pin 4: + (plus)signal

Pin 5: Other+ (plus) signal

Pin 6: SGND

7 & 8: Not used

You may also need to enable the 4th switch of the dip switch (up position) to enable termination for the RS485 line.

You may need to activate altpin from the command line if you do not see it in the web interface:

set serial altpin=on port=(port_number)

3

I was expecting to have following altpin configuration in RJ45 8 pin:
1:RxD-
2:TxD+
5:RxD+
6:SGND
8:TxD-

This alternate pinout is documented for PortServer family, but not for ConnectPort. Altpin selection is available on Web UI but it’s either not working properly or unsupported.

I will give CLI configuration a try, though.

EDIT: no luck with CLI, pins 2 & 8 are still RTS.

4

Yes, the ConnectPort LTS 16 MEI has the altpin mode for 4-wire RS-485. The quick start document shows the pin out for a 10 pin connector as well as the 8 pin connector.

It is the pin out shown on the far right hand side of the table.

5

That pin out is indeed presented in ConnectPort’s Quick Start Guide.

However, the column’s heading says: “PortServer
TS 8/16 MEI only”.

Altpin mode still seems unsupported in ConnectPort.

6

The altpin setting is for EIA-232 only. I’m pretty sure that the ConnectPort lacks the possibility to use the same 8-wire cable as the PortServer could for EIA-422 full-duplex.