Above: The Serial settings page is used to set parameters for the serial port (mainly used for CAT controlled antenna switching). If a Prosistel, Green Heron or DCU-1 rotator is used then these settings are not used.

General info, lines is available from firmware version 1.24. It allows, in modes which doesn’t use the serial port for other purposes, receiving of short status messages(maximum 160 characters) which displays on the “General serial status” page.  An example is shown below:

The received messages get timestamps. The number of items in the list is programmable(se above). The newest is shown first. The format is ASCII with STX(2) as start character and ETX(3) as end character with a total length of 162 characters(including STX+ETX) each.

Version 3.0 and newer:

Remote serial (RFC2217) selects if the Webswitch should act as either an RFC2217 compatible remote serial port client or server.

Remote serial TCP port is used in both client and server mode to set the TCP port used to either connect or listen to. 

Remote serial host/IP is only used in the client mode to tell the Webswitch the IP address/host name of the listening RFC2217 server.

Remote serial DSR is only used in the client mode to set the state of the DSR signal at the remote side.

Remote serial CTS is only used in the client mode to set the state of the CTS signal at the remote side.

When enabling RFC2217 client or server mode it is possible to use the Webswitch’s serial port as a remote serial port transparently accessible from any RFC2217 compatible client or server. The Microbit Setup Manager program (version 1.18 and newer) will install drivers and make it possible to use a serial port on the PC as one end of the remote serial port. To make that work just set up the COM port +  IP address/host name and TCP port of the Webswitch in the Setup Manager and configure the Webswitch to use Server mode and the same TCP port as you entered in the Setup Manager program(see below). You must use an unique number for the TCP port, i.e not the same as for ex. the built-in webserver’s port or the Telnet server’s port if it is available. Do not forget to open up any blocking firewall, especially when using server mode . Note that the Webswitch does not support RS232 status signals, just the Rx and Tx signals.