Serial Console (Raspberry Pi?)

Ramosel

Good Morning,
Since putting up my SG-4860 I've (low priority) been looking for a cheap/easy/low power/small way to access the serial console port. Yes, I can and do monitor the unit remotely via the web interface and an SSH connection via Putty. The SG-4860 lives in an electronics vault under the house and when I'm physically in front of it, I like to have local console access. I've been using an old USFF desktop and have a couple different terminal emulators on it. But, in my ever increasing move towards going completely off-(power)grid, I've been looking for a lower wattage solution. I'm thinking about just using a Raspberry Pi (~5watts at full tilt).

Is anyone doing it this way? Hints, suggestions, warnings, tips?

johnpoz

I have like 4 different pi's setting next to my 4860.. I could move the serial cable from my pc that goes into the 4860 and test this for you.

I have a zero, a 2 and two 3's When I get home I will move the serial cable over and to a little test see.

But other the 4860 blowing up some how and needing access.. you really shouldn't need console access. But yeah guess your pi on wifi would be a good out of bound sort of access... A poor man's terminal server so to speak.. Let you know tonight or in the morning which is normally my tinker time ;)

Ramosel

@johnpoz if you don't mind, please test with a 3. And thank you. With your 4860 plugged in before booting the Pi... If I remember correctly you should be able to use "dmesg" to find the USB port that gets assigned to the connection during boot.

johnpoz

Yup let you know... I have a pi3 that I don't really do anything with - its just play box.. The other 3 is my ntp server so not going to just reboot that out of the blue for a test ;)

I don't have any screens or keyboards on these things... So the test will be ssh into the pi and then via the console connected to the 4860 see that..

bigsy

I'm doing this with an old Pi Model B (512MB, revision 000e) running ser2net on Raspbian with a USB to serial adapter. pfSense is on a Jetway box and it works well.

johnpoz

Just plugged it in

[251274.073154] usb 1-1.5: new full-speed USB device number 4 using dwc_otg
[251274.207921] usb 1-1.5: New USB device found, idVendor=10c4, idProduct=ea60
[251274.207935] usb 1-1.5: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[251274.207945] usb 1-1.5: Product: CP2104 USB to UART Bridge Controller
[251274.207953] usb 1-1.5: Manufacturer: Silicon Labs
[251274.207961] usb 1-1.5: SerialNumber: 01327C19
[251274.265492] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbserial
[251274.267680] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbserial_generic
[251274.268497] usbserial: USB Serial support registered for generic
[251274.274090] usbcore: registered new interface driver cp210x
[251274.274569] usbserial: USB Serial support registered for cp210x
[251274.274719] cp210x 1-1.5:1.0: cp210x converter detected
[251274.278492] usb 1-1.5: cp210x converter now attached to ttyUSB0

Then a simple
screen /dev/ttyUSB0 115200

jimp

Pis make great little serial console boxes. Slap on a USB hub and they can talk to a bunch of things at once.

I have a screen config setup to load a bunch of consoles and stay running (not on a Pi here but it will work on one).

0_1544016804583_My Servers - Chomp : PAC (v4.5.5.7)_109.jpg

$ cat ~/.consoles.screenrc 
startup_message off
defscrollback 50000
sessionname consoles
screen -t 'APU' /dev/ttyU0 115200
screen -t 'SG-1000' /dev/ttyU1 115200
screen -t 'SG-3100' /dev/ttyU2 115200
screen -t 'SG-1000-2' /dev/ttyU3 115200
screen -t 'FW-7551' /dev/ttyU4 115200
screen -t 'SG-4860' /dev/ttyU5 115200
screen -t 'SG-5100' /dev/ttyU6 115200

Change the names and serial devices to match your setup.

To start: sudo screen -c ~/.consoles.screenrc
To reattach: sudo screen -d -S consoles -r

Ramosel

Thanks guys, I'll work my setup that direction!

Rick

Ramosel

Thanks gents, works as hoped and knocked another 85 watts of part time load off my solar project.

Rick

Ramosel

@johnpoz said in Serial Console (Raspberry Pi?):

The other 3 is my ntp server so not going to just reboot that out of the blue for a test ;)

John, This part of your reply has been bouncing around in my head since I read it. Any chance you are using this Pi 3 as a Stratum 1 NTP server? if so, I'll be glad to take this to another area of the forum if you'd care to discuss.

johnpoz

Yeah I run ntp stratum 1 server on pi 3.. And it part of ntp pool both ipv4 and ipv6

Just cost a few bucks for the hat, and some setup time..