These solutions exist in the land of SCADA, industrial control, DIN rail..

Advantech is a vendor, search "iot-ethernet-i-o-modules-adam-6000-6200"...

Jim

From: Jim Lux via time-nuts time-nuts@lists.febo.com
Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2024 12:17 PM
To: time-nuts@lists.febo.com time-nuts@lists.febo.com
Cc: Jim Lux jim@luxfamily.com
Subject: [time-nuts] Re: timing lab, remote control

I've hunted for this too, but the best I found was a RPi at both ends, with some software to send it via TCP/UDP.
You might look at the industrial controls products - I've not looked recently, and it would definitely be pricey. But that kind of almost turnkey thing is fairly common.

On Thu, 11 Jan 2024 06:16:00 -0800, Tom Van Baak via time-nuts time-nuts@lists.febo.com wrote:

There was a posting from Skip a while ago that didn't come through. See
below for his request. Me too.

In my case, I have an area at home you could call my working bench. I
also have small room, less accessible, where I keep my best clocks with
as little human interference as possible. I'd like to improve its remote
monitoring and control over ethernet.

So the question is, does anyone make a black box that acts as a
transparent latch or GPIO? I'd like 8 or 16 bits at my bench that when
changed turn into bits in the remote lab. Ideally no setup, no protocol,
no commands, no software, no operating system, no bugs; just two boxes
with N pins on each end and changes are reflected from one to the other
over LAN. TTL/CMOS level is fine. Some latency is ok.

I'm not looking for yet another WiFi, Arduino/LAN, or R-Pi project, but
rather a turn-key solution that just works. I spent a significant amount
of time on the web, thinking this would be a trivial search, but I came
up empty.

Thanks,
/tvb

number or I/O

one box is

its state would

motor remotely.

doesn't exist.

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Hi

A pair of $35 each RPi’s and who knows who’s add on boards for (maybe) $50 each gets you quite a ways. Assuming “who knows who” also provides a rational library to support their boards things should not be to far off into the world of insane projects. By the time you add cases, you have made it past $100 each. Pick another brand of add on board, add the supply adapter and you could easily be up around $150 each. Off to a fancier RPi and you could maybe get to $200 … maybe.

Even with the RPi approach, this could get pretty expensive pretty fast.

Do you really escape from bugs and issues with this or that canned solution? There are similar devices that (when you tear them apart) have something like an RPi buried inside. That’s based on chatting with folks who tear this stuff apart for a living. You are saving the hassle of doing it DIY. You now are isolated enough that fixing bugs is more difficult. We don’t live in a perfect world …..

Bob

Here's the output half, 8 relays, remote IP web interface controlled over 10/100 RJ-45 (or simple string commands by RS-485 serial), for under $50:
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Diymore-NC-1000-Ethernet-RJ45-TCP-IP-Remote-Control-Board-8-Channel-Relay-Net-Controller/3934806669

Apparently NC-1000 clones (or maybe the original) are available elsewhere:
https://www.elecbee.com/en-23923-NC-1000-Ethernet-RJ45-TCP-IP-Remote-Control-Board-with-8-Channels-Relay-Integrated-AC250V-485-Networking-Controller-DC-7-24V

Bob L.

For the real frugal here is a $12 (total!) solution that requires almost no development effort:
https://robotzero.one/sending-data-esp8266-to-esp8266/

Using two of these for digital I/O only:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/123866319935

Bob L.

Hi Tom, Skip —

In the broadcast world there are suppliers of GPIO-over-Internet/Ethernet devices. They aren’t cheap, however, as they are usually part of a larger package of devices that send packetized audio (and video).

How much delay/time variance can you tolerate in your applications?

If none of the other devices people suggest will do the job, let me know.

— Eric

 
I'd think that if they're selling into an industrial controls market that it has to be reasonably robust.  The functionality is fairly limited in this kind of application, so the software is less likely to be buggy.  When I see features like "web access" or "autoupload to cloud" I might get more nervous (if only because that means it's an attack surface for intruders..)

On Thu, 11 Jan 2024 12:52:12 -0500, Bob Camp kb8tq@n1k.org wrote:

Hi

A pair of $35 each RPi’s and who knows who’s add on boards for (maybe) $50 each gets you quite a ways. Assuming “who knows who” also provides a rational library to support their boards things should not be to far off into the world of insane projects. By the time you add cases, you have made it past $100 each. Pick another brand of add on board, add the supply adapter and you could easily be up around $150 each. Off to a fancier RPi and you could maybe get to $200 … maybe.

Even with the RPi approach, this could get pretty expensive pretty fast.

Do you really escape from bugs and issues with this or that canned solution? There are similar devices that (when you tear them apart) have something like an RPi buried inside. That’s based on chatting with folks who tear this stuff apart for a living. You are saving the hassle of doing it DIY. You now are isolated enough that fixing bugs is more difficult. We don’t live in a perfect world …..

Bob

Hi

Well ….

Based on using similar stuff over the years on various projects (I have not used the specific devices mentioned):

1. You often get some sort of configuration software that needs to be run to set them up. That stuff may run on a specific OS (and maybe OS version …). It may or may not be happy on the computer you have set up already. Are those bugs? I’d say not, but they are a hassle if you run into them.

2. You just might need some sort of dongle or magic cable ( not included …. :) ) to do the setup. The why of this gets back to that target audience. Somebody putting in hundreds of these would be hip deep in cables by the end of the day.

3. They do indeed come out with updates and patches for the devices. Some are adding features. Some indeed are fixing issues. Early adopters are obviously more likely to run into this. It’s been almost 6 months since I lasts ran into it :)

4. Some devices do indeed have an OS running inside them. You then have the very basic question: Do you want to be running an OS that hasn’t had any patches / security updates for the last 10 years? ( Truth in lending … I have a number of devices where the answer is “yup, I do run them”}. It is a risk.

Yes, it is a crazy world. None of the solutions are really “hassle free”.

Bob