Thank you both, Alan and goetzrc76, for your quick reply.
goetzrc76
I forgot to mention in my original post that I have actually done that exact test you suggested with good results. It was, in fact, the first validation test we did after setting everything up, using a Cisco switch (don’t remember the model now because I am out of the office) and it worked pretty well. After that, I assumed everything would go on easy with the serial port, but no…
Help me go further following your reasoning: if I take the laptop out (in fact, what I am planning to use on the serial side is a custom hardware I need to talk with from the TCP client on the 580 side, not any sort of PC) I assume that whatever I write on the putty terminal of the tcp client, once established the connection to BR1 IP/Port, should appear on the lines of the port. Is that correct?
I am originally a hardware guy. If that is correct I can just hook the lines of the port up to an oscilloscope and whatever happens in those lines I can electrically see it in the scope without intermediary Windows drivers, etc.
Alan
What I have done to configure my “serial device” (the laptop) looks very similar to the general procedure described in that link, but as far as I understand there is a big difference: I am not trying to connect it to the 580 console port. I am using it just as a serial terminal at the remote end, behind the BR1/Port Adapter, to catch what is written on the TCP client terminal, and reply back.
These are the references, very usefull, I have followed so far (one of them authored by you):
Looks strange to me by the way that, in the article referencd on the last link, the GND lines are not mentioned in the pinout.
Thanks again