New Portserver TS 2 Owner Needs Help

Greetings, all.

I’ve recently taken delivery of a TS 2 and have been very diligent in configuration and set up. I’m fairly experienced with network appliances but admit this is my first Digi product / serial interface.

My goal is to integrate the TS 2 into my home automation system. My current set up includes several PC’s, AVR’s, Insteon devices, Somfy RTS shades, an ISY-99i and a couple of Global Cache iTach IP2IR’s. Everything’s working pretty smoothly.

Enter the Portserver. I’m looking to use it for serial control of an Onkyo receiver (i.e. TX-SR707) and eventually a Somfy serial-to-RTS controller.

My current set up looks like this:

PC -> [Network] -> PortServer -> Receiver

I want to be able to send TCP messages from the PC (actually from multiple devices on the network) to the Portserver and have it control the receiver over serial port 1.

My TS 2 is running firmware dated 04/11/2011 – which I believe to be the most recent version. I’ve logged into the device, created a static IP and configured port 1 to match the specifications of the Onkyo receiver.

However, at this point, I’m stumped. The TS2 doesn’t seem to be communicating with the receiver at all. I send TCP messages to the PortServer but get no response. I’m also unable to tell if the Onkyo and the PortServer are talking.

How do you recommend I diagnose / troubleshoot this set up?

The 2008 version of the TS user guide (i.e. the most recent I could find) mentioned setting a profile for TCP Sockets. I don’t see this option available anywhere in the web interface of my TS 2. This leads me to believe either the user documentation is out of date or my TS 2’s web interface isn’t up to date.

I’m at a loss. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Thank you,
dp

After several back and forth’s with Digi Support, I’ve reached a resolution I’d like to share with the population.

My PortServer TS 2 is a legacy OEM version for which official support expired in mid-2010. Being an OEM version, its web interface isn’t the same as that referenced in the Digi documentation – it doesn’t expose a method of creating a “Port Profile” and specifying “TCP Sockets”. When configured as type “Terminal”, the device refuses TCP and/or Telnet connections on port 210X.

I was able to create a RealPort connection to the device – and that worked fine – but it means you always need a PC in the chain – you can’t communicate with the PortServer directly over the network.

After much searching and experimentation… by configuring a port as type “Printer”, you can connect and send messages via TCP / Telnet. You’ll need to relinquish any existing connections (i.e. RealPort) to the PortServer in order to make this work but I can confirm it does in fact work. Thanks to Digi Support for suggesting this solution.

Hoping this benefits anyone else experiencing similar issues.

Thanks,
dp

I need some help in getting mine setup for automation and have sent you a email please help me.