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Web Server Packed into RJ45 Connector
VinceTronics writes "Electronic Design magazine has a review (.pdf) of the XPort by Lantronix, a product that packs an entire web server into the volume of an RJ45 connector! This includes an 80186 controller, an OS, the TCP/IP stack, a 10/100 Ethernet transceiver, and the LAN interface magnetics. Downside is that the serial interface to the controller tops out at 300 kbps, but for $33 (in 10K quantities) it's a cool, easy way to net-enable just about anything."
Just in case: The PDF review doc
RudeDude
Perl/Linux/PHP hacker
I used to have an ear ring that could run seti@home.
You'll have that sometimes...
It's a good thing that the review wasn't hosted on one of these things! They sound really cool, but there's no way they'd handle a slashdotting! Then again...maybe a Beowulf cluster of them would...
Now my fridge, toaster, washer & dryer can have their own IP addresses & websites.
Bring on IPv6 to deal with it!
Sure, a lot of these devices seem cool (and I'll agree that they are), but to me and others in my line of work they're a security nightmare. Due to the small size, it's not hard build a device that could be hidden inside of a building on a network leaving it open to the person who left it there.
I'd still love to have one to play around with, though!
Downside is that the serial interface to the controller tops out at 300 kbps
This seems doesn't seem like that big of a deal, for the kind of appications this is targeted for (security system modules, refrigerators, answering machines, etc...) I'd think 300 kbps is more than adaquate, you can even do some streaming video, with a reasonable bit-rate.
Cloud City Digital: DVD Production at its cheapest/finest
...it'd be really small.
If somehow someone puts one of those in your network closet (or heck, anywhere on the network), good luck finding it -- it's a connector for godsakes!
Trolls lurk everywhere. Mod them down.
Imagine being able to check on the temparature of your fridge over the internet. Even install a web cam inside it. Check what groceries you need from work.
Pow. Cheep, web enabled fridge.
The only problem would be script kiddies. I 0wnzers your cuccumber man
-- Hulver's site
Sounds interesting. You take a modern Refrig. and you have all of the internal processor(s) and sensor(s) output their data to this thing and then while I'm sitting at work I can check and see how well my Fridge is running..
It might be more fun in the TV so it can keep a log of with the kids and the Spouse are watching not to mention the washing machine! [Dirty water detected, extend wash cycle (yes) (no)].
http://www.hawknest.com/
Embedded systems. Put one in your toaster, fridge, hair dryer, internal diagnostics on your TV, spa, whatever. It's not meant to be a webserver for a high bandwidth website, but more for controlling some device via a web interface.
..for cheap home electronic devices you might want to web-enable (i.e. tell the 100-DVD jukebox to have the following playlist ready when you get home, have the fridge print you out dinner recipies, blah blah blah), but with 512kb of flash for the web pages and a (relatively) slow interface, they certainly wouldn't be useful for serving (and they aren't really being sold as such, despite what the tagline says - the PDF mentions serving, but the main push seems to be monitoring & control..good idea for something like this).
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. - Aldous Huxley
Anything embeddable sells in tens of thousands. Stationary computers are the least produced computer type. Just imagine all microcontrollers in VCRs for example. I'd say that there are far more than 10000 VCRs sold each year. Now embedd a webserver into each VCR, so that you can program the timer over your private LAN. Thats a possible 10000 units. Now put the same protocol in your digital TV reciever/decoder to change channels, update codes, subscribe to PPV shows etc. and let the VCR change the channel of the decoder and you've got another 10k units.
10k is a small number in the embedded world.
Now, for the real price:. html
"The list price of the XPort is $49.00. Discount pricing on the XPort is also available in volumes of ten thousand."
according to http://www.lantronix.com/news/pr/2003/02-24-xport
Ok, imagine your company makes sensors that output their results via RS-232 serial. Or controllers that are given commands via RS-232 serial. Or maybe you have machinery that is programmed through RS-232 serial. Either way, your would like to access those products remotely, and RS-232 just doesn't go very far. Add this thing, and suddenly your products are web-enabled.
The price is a bit high still, but there is a lot of equipment where $33 extra a unit would not scare customers away.
Finally! A year of moderation! Ready for 2019?
the Siteplayer is bigger but does more and is easily afforded by nearly anyone at $29.00 in SINGLE QUANTITIES so buy one and mess with it, make the first toaster with an IP address, 10baseT and a web interface (I did. though it was neat, then dismantled it because it was reallllly silly.)
http://www.siteplayer.com/ is the place to go.
If you cant buy the product in single quantities for a very reasonable price, then it's not worth messing with.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Ultra-Small Server Web-Enables Any System Providing access to a LAN or the Internet, a Web server squeezed in an RJ45 connector shroud packs a full TCP/IP stack and OS. As companies trim labor overheads, they~Rre looking to fill the void with remote diagnostics, maintenance, and data collection. One method is to Web-enable more systems to use the Internet and World Wide Web to collect data and diagnose or control systems. Webenabling typically meant adding a local-area network (LAN) interface, a controller, a software transmission- control-protocol/Internet-protocol (TCP/IP) stack, and other circuitry and software. Now, all that has been squeezed into the basic RJ-45 connector shroud (0.64 in. by 0.57 in. by 1.34 in.), which would typically be soldered to the pc board. All the circuit design and pc-board space the LAN circuitry requires is now eliminated. The Lantronix DSTni-XPort lets designers without any LAN/Internet experience create Internet-ready systems in minutes. Within the connector shroud, the DSTni-XPort packs the company~Rs DSTni-LX (an 80186-based controller), a 2-kbyte boot ROM, 256 kbytes of SRAM, 512 kbytes of flash memory, a 10/100 autosensing Ethernet transceiver, a high-speed serial port, three programmable I/O pins, bicolor LEDs for diagnostics, the LAN interface magnetics, and a full TCP/IP network stack and operating system (OS) . Thus, the XPort delivers a full device server in the space consumed by only the connector. Designed to operate from a 3.3- V supply, the XPort functions from -40C to 85C. It costs about $33 each in 10,000-unit lots. Lantronix Inc. www.lantronix.com (949) 453-3990
I didn't see where this is a full webserver. The documentation seemed to indicate that it's a TCP/IP handler. You put serial data in one side and TCP/IP network packets come out the other side.
At least, that's what it's targetted at; an addition to an existing embedded system. I don't think you could just write a backdoor and stick it on a network and expect it to work. Probably not enough memory/CPU capacity for that sort of thing...
I am disrespectful to dirt! Can you see that I am serious?!
Everyone suggests that these could be used in toasters, fridges, etc. etc... But would you actually run cables to all of these devices?
I can just picture Old Man Stevens handing his wife a juicer for her birthday. Old Lady Stevens lets out a little sigh and grabs a crimper and a spool of Cat5.
FIGHT THE FUTURE!
At $33 each in quantity, I don't think we are going to see them in toasters anytime soon.
As far as embedded systems goes, this is an order of magnitude or so too expensive. Manufacturers pinch pennies on even larger items like TV's, as each dollar increase in cost translates into something like $5 to the consumer, and potentially millions to the bottom line.
Frankly, this technology isn't even appropriate anyway. For something more in line with the applications you are thinking about, look here where the technology is already imbedded in millions of consumer devices.
Hell, there'll be so many, it'll simultaneously turn around the tech slump AND drive us all to IPv6.
Until, of course, someone mistakenly installs 10,000 of these babies in the server room. All those geeks...<shudder>
Carousel is a lie!
but dead flies are smaller, cheaper, and in greater abundance :)
...it's a cool, easy way to net-enable just about anything.
Which is fine, but the REAL killer device will be an embeddable, commodity-level wireless interface--whether 802.11 or its successor--paired with ubiquitous wireless access, at least on par with current digital cell service. I estimate we're only a few years away from the latter, and the former is already more or less available in the PCMCIA form factor.
When my toaster oven can download Pop-Tart-warming instructions from its manufacturer's website without an additional cable to the wall, that'll be something.
This is a great product but it pulls over 200 mills, not so great for low power embedded work.
What this could really use is a pass-through ethernet hub built into the device, so that you can drop it in-line with a cable in place of some existing connecter...
Then don't think of fridges think of ovens. DL a new recipe and the oven will take care of all the temperature adjustments and timing you just put your food in and press 'GO'.
The applications are only limited by your imagination.
- Toby
Technology likes this really shows off how useful an open, ASCII-based, protocol can be.
It's a web server with an RJ45 port. How exactly will that "net-enable just about anything"?
Sure, you can plug a webserver into anything that happens to have an existing RJ45 port, but what use would that be? (Just what I've always wanted... a web server that I can plug into my laptop so I can browse the web at a blazing 300k/sec.)
I want to net-enable my car. Someone tell me how this RJ45 device will allow that. My car doesn't even have an RJ45 port...
I don't know about edible, but I do like this idea; for most fruit, you could embed the tag in the skin, for example. I'd actually really like to be able to get a list of stuff in the fridge, be warned when something's approaching the eat-by date...
Better still: some RFID tags have sensors in. A simple Perl script could track a shopping list for me, and either order replacements online or be synced to a PDA for shopping. Maybe even couple it with a Pricewatch-type site, so I know which supermarket would be cheapest for that particular list; work out what recipe I could make, or what I'd need to add.
Alternatively - if this device can do 300 Kbit/sec in this version, how about cable-modem/ADSL routers? Up the bandwidth a bit, it would handle the load OK; as it is, it could make a nice easy dialup router. $33 with a serial port - add a simple modem, and you have the ultimate plug+play ISP: one end in the phone socket, the other in the NIC, and it's all preconfigured!
I fully admit that my understanding of electronics is pretty weak, and I am confused.
I don't get it?
Everyone keeps talking about how you can hook up your toaster, coffee maker, etc. Do these devices have a serial port?
How would one interface with any of these kind of devices unless they had some sort of output interface?
I can see where these might work well with older legacy devices(printers, etc), and you want to be able put them on a network, but I fail to see how they would help in your home.
Enlightment anyone?
Imagine being able to check on the temparature of your fridge over the internet. Even install a web cam inside it.
That would be SO cool! I'd finally be able to get the PROOF of the existance of the little guy who turns on and off the light in my fridge!
Ed Wedig
Graphic design services
docbrown.net
Damn scr1p7 k19913s hacked my toaster - now all it serves up is toast with burn marks that reads "r00ted ya"
A slashdotting - you get the stick first and then the carrot !
Food service organizations must regularly monitor and log the temperature of their refrigerators. If one is off for any reason, the Health Department gets verrrrry testy. A net enabled device to check the temp does not substitute for showing up in person with a thermometer. However, this would allow them to spot trouble brewing before the health inspectors find it.
It's my Beowulf Cluster. :^)
- Having your lights switched by the computer
- Your microwave starts making food when crond tells it to
- Log when people ring the doorbell
- Automatically switch off all lights when you press a master switch when leaving the house
I'll bookmark it. If the price ever decreases to less than $30 a piece, I'll consider to buy some..sig: No such file or directory
Any sane manufacturer is not going to add a $33 part to a $70 VCR. This is completely the wrong application. Frankly, VCR's already have a decent enough CPU
to web enable them for much less money than this part - like $3 for a single chip ethernet interface.
Think of a webcam or something where you take that part, this, and bingo, webcam, front-door intercom, etc. Considering the price of similar items on the market, this still seems very expensive for lower-end applications.
Add this thing, and suddenly your products are web-enabled.
add another, hack with the tcpip stack, and your fridge is now a router!
We're like rats, in some experiment! -- George Costanza
And you could also make one wireless... I think the only thing limiting you could be power consumption. But having a wall wart plugged into one of these under somebody's desk- that seems doable.
Manipulate the moderator system! Mod someone as "overrated" today.
Where does it say that the device is running Windows? All I could find is that there's a Windows based configuration utility, and a Windows based com port redirector.
"A terrorist is someone who has a bomb but doesn't have an air force." -William Blum
Although it is smaller than your thumb, the XPort contains all of the hardware and software required to Web-enable any device, including:
10Base-T/100Base-TX auto-sensing Ethernet connection
Mature, robust operating system
Embedded HTTP-compliant Web server
Programmable e-mail alerts
Extensive networking protocol suite including full TCP/IP stack
128-bit AES Rijndael encryption
Downside is that the serial interface to the controller tops out at 300 kbps, but for $33 (in 10K quantities) it's a cool, easy way to net-enable just about anything."
The size is a big factor but there are already full blown devices that can do far more then this and are cheaper. Take a look at some DSL/Cable routers. Siemens sells one that is a 10/100 4 port switch, web interface and control, printer port, firewall, etc... for $19 and $28. Many SMC barricades and Linksys models are going for under $40. These devices might not fit into a toaster but I know they could be made smaller. I know comparing these to the articles product is not apples to apples but there are cheaper and more robust web and network enabled devices already out on the street.
Bad boys rape our young girls but Violet gives willingly.
Factory automation has been involved with web enabling control processes for several years, albeit with less focus on web based goodies and more on the actual control of distributed peripherals.
In the good old days control of an Auto plant, chemical plant, anything at all that required PLC (programmable logic controllers), all of the i/o was driven by units that attached directly to the PLC-CPU unit. This was all very well but from there you then had to run power cables the tens of metres to whatever valves or motor you wanted to control, the routing of power cables is more strictly regulated that data cables.
Some bright spark came up with the idea that if you distributed the i/o placing it right beside the motor or whatever and ran a high speed communication link over data lines this would be eaiser to manage. Things got more interesting when you add the web to the equation, and some of the big guns toyed with the idea of serving java applets allowing centrally located controllers to download the applets that visualised and controlled the remote (anything from metres to 1000's of Kilometres) equipment and to control it from there.
The draw back to this is that if it is on the web then there is subject to attacked, by iraqi's or script kiddies.
--My sig is bigger than your sig--
Nuf said.
Sorry, but in this business "$30/piece" is *NOT* cheap.
...
Wake me up when they're selling them at $1 a piece in quantities of 10k, then we'll see a revolution
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
- The serial interface maxes out at 230 Kbps, not 300. In that way it would appear to be comparable to a 16650 class UART. But ...
- Who cares? For an industrial control application, a device requiring more than 230 Kbps to sample data is rare. As fot the ethernet, it's 10/100 autosensing. I would expect the 80186 CPU to be the bottleneck before the I/O.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
According to the site it's $100 for the SDK KIT which makes that $30 module useful. The xPort is an all in one solution for $50.
$130 vs $50. SitePlayer is far more expensive and far less attractive as far as the packaging.
Ben
Work Safe Porn
These devices would be great for simplifying factory control systems. Consider a small refinery producing cooking oil, speciality lubricants, detergents, or other liquids. There are hundreds, if not thousands of valves, flow meters, temperature and pressure sensors, tank gauges, heating/cooling units, and so on. Aside from power, all these devices have at least a wire pair back to some central control position, often through some proprietary interface (sometimes several layers worth), usually a legacy from several factory refits back.
These devices would let you strip away all the legacy hardware to be replaced by a simple RS-232 interface to the RJ45 device, then CAT-5 and local network back to a software solution control system.
The upside: software replacement for hardware system, and generic interfaces throughout the factory!
Pacifist paratroopers yell, "Ghandi!" when they jump.
According to their website here: http://www.lantronix.com/news/pr/2003/02-24-xport. html they are available in single unit quantities for $49.00.
Typical - someone fits an entire web server into the space of an RJ45 socket, including socket space, and the top ten posts go on about what a waste of time it is! Personally, I think its great, and although I wouldn't expect toasters with this thing any time soon, it would be ideal for wiring factory equipment and such like with remote diagnostics (I get the impression this is the market they are aiming for). I think it would be massively improved if they could fit a wifi interface into the space wasted by the RJ45 socket, though. Then it might have realistic household applications.
Their development methodology is out to lunch though!
If I seem short sighted, it is because I stand on the shoulders of midgets
While a web server is cool, and ideal for human interaction, it seems to me that the most promising application for this technology is on the assembly line. In this application, a passive technology (a daemon waiting for someone to connect) is not ideal.
Why not implement an snmp daemon, this way the device can through traps you tell you when the "capper" is jammed, or when the fridges temp goes below a threshold. SNMP Mibs can allow for the same passive access that HTTP allows, though there would need to be a client involved.
FizzyD
I can see these being used in cars for diagnostics, as opposed to the propritary interfaces now used. One of these and a wifi would allow car service places to check out your car without you having to actually come into the dealership. Just start up the car and let us have a look at all its parameters over the web. The car could even tell them when something's going wrong or when routine service is coming due. They could also be used this way as/in a form of imbedded theft control device for the vehicle.
Small web servers are old news. Art & Logic has been creating embedded web applications since 1996. Typically, embedded web servers are used for something called web-based device management. Companies do this as an alternative to CLI or Windows/Java applications. All the usual advantages to web-based management apply, including ease of development, deployment, support, etc.
This story has a lot of cool factor, but other companies (Ubicom, for example) sell web-enabled chips for less money (last time I checked). If you're talking about consumer devices (such as a toaster, fridge, etc), it's all about cost per unit.
If you're building a more expensive product, you might have room for an RTOS (real-time operating system) and a software-based webserver to run on top of it, such as the GoAhead WebServer or the Device Management Framework.
These will be huge in medical equipment if they're proven reliable. Imagine being able to monitor patients at home 24/7 over the web, or using these in hospitals for real time monitor and capture of medical monitors'data (EKG's etc.) over the Hospital LAN. Doctors could even use these to check up on patients from home without having to bother the nurses on duty. And in terms of having one in your refrigerator, though you might not need/want one there, a supermarket chain or restaurant might! Why do you think that so many are stafffed 24 hours? To keep an eye on the refrigeration equipment. I can also see these being used in process control devices, automation, and remote control units.
If they can slap a webserver into such a small device, why not just slap ircop or some other small footprint firewall and hook it up with a pass through on the back end so you can hook another system behind it. Then, you can just slap that baby in and now each time you plug in your computer into the network, just slap that baby in the front of your RJ45 and whala, instant firewall for you and just do NAT for you. Now that would be really sweet.
Sorry, it's just not.
At $30/pop, yes, handy for things that cost $600+ that might want ethernet (it's still 5%, so up that even more until it's 2-3%).
It's a serial-> ethernet device. For $30/port, serial is cheaper.
Want to monitor a fridge? There are a billion devices that can read temp over serial devices.
Wanna do a hole house? Scatter around some microcontrollers.
PIC and many others make chips that have serial, talk a little programming and have things like digital IO or 12 A/Ds.
Put one in each room - they fit in an outlet box with room to spare.
Wire up sensors:
- one reads light levels (along with time of day and other sensors, central computing can decide that the light is on, or it's just sunny).
- some for TEMP (LM34/LM35's are the expensive option, but easy)
-- one in the fridge, one at waist level for the room, one outside
- humidity
Digital IO can:- tell you if outlets are on with decent circuit work
- tell if an (internal, see below) door is open or changes state
- tell you if someone steps on the carpet (in the bathroom at 7AM so it knows to turn the coffee on).
- control smart sockets (X10 is barely smart).
- read a simple button push, unlock an internal door (below), can read the chip in your neck to see that you are now in the room (you know about the chip, right
:), whatever.
(It's a bad plan for burlar alarm functions, you want those run separately)The Controller is "taught" what type of sensor is on each input, it reads the values, actions may have it talk (96kb is more than fast enough) down a CAT3 or 5 to the central computer. This wire may also power it.
Perhaps a temp threshold (high/low/change rate) triggers a report.
Perhaps it just reports every N seconds (N=120 is still lots of useless data)
Perhaps it also has OUTPUT. But it has little intelligence.
Central computing can also "read" the burglar alarm and know that you just entered (it was your code), it's dark out and cold, it's dinner time, so it can turn on a couple lights, spit a message to your (serial) LCD in the hall with messages (your girlf is leaving you cause you leave the seat up and work on your computer too much and why the hell can't she turn on the damn lights like a normal person!).
Central computer gets ethernet. Runs with no disk (flash boot), doesn't do much else. It can talk to a Real Computer that has the MP3s, etc.
Central computer might just be a general MicroController, but it's taking 20 different serial connections in (232? or I2O or shared RS232 with a protocol (Device A: Read Sensor B @ value 116 becomes ASCII "AB00000116". or something). ASCII makes life easier, packets longer).
For $30, I can get the PIC chip ($55 with basic to program it) and run 4 conducter alarm wire along a room (push it into drywall, spackle).
For $30 at Q10,000, I want bluetooth or 802.11{a,b,g,i} and IPv6 and IPSec.
Want all the serials to be ethernet instead and go into a 16 port hub? HUB: $100, 6x$30 for these: adds $280 plus development (at 10k rates).
For the CAT5, I might as well stick with the serial. Let one machine agreggate the data and offer it over the network.