Dordogne Retreat - a farmhouse tale

After the disappointment of the last couple of days over not being able to connect the Weather Station to the Internet some progress has been made after much research, datasheet reading and risk taking!

For non techies you might want to stop reading here!

There is little information on the WS-2300 on the internet, and close to none on the Netcom-10s. However I did find some useful information on an opensource software project for the WS-2300 (Open2300 - Open WSAPI). It turns out that the WS-2300 doesnt use the CTS/RTS/DTR lines correctly but needs DTR held at negative voltage and RTS held at positive voltage (both levels being the + and - used by the RS232 driver circuit) and it uses these signals to determine the right levels for the interface. Clearly it doesn't use a standard RS232 driver that would just use a ground for reference, but then its cheap!

Having read this I opened up the Netcom-10s and the RS232 driver is a 'standard' type (Sipex SP3232EEN) and has the correct + and - voltage levels available on pins 2 and 6. So after testing my theory using a separate circuit board the solution to the problem is to run 2 wires from these pins to the serial interface. The Sipex 232 chip is highlighted in green below:

WARNING - this is my own mod and it carries no guarantees, try it at your own risk! It involves soldering to surface mount components so is tricky if like me you gave up soldering years ago!

Pin 2 needs to go the RTS

Pin 6 needs to DTR

DTR is available on the topside of the circuit board, but RTS seems only to be available on the connector pin on the underside.

Running the wire around the side of the board doesn't cause a problem, there is space between the board and case.

Having done the mod the software burst into life and can communicate over the internet! What I have found is that it locks up after a while, this looks like a software/virtual com port problem - but it may be my modification - so you have been warned.

More to follow.....