“This thing is perfect.
I used it with a Cloud DCM1 Zone mixer.
It reboots instantly and appears rock solid.
It offers Asynchronous Time-Division Multiplexing (ATDM) which it calls 'Multi-Host' mode where the serial device can be shared between multiple clients but only data it considers to be a response to a client request is sent to that client. That mode wasn't what I needed as I wanted all clients to see responses and any unsolicited data from the serial device, so I switched it off. When 'Multi-Host' is offer several clients can still connect but they'll all see the same output of the serial device itself. The 'Multi-Host' mode can be engaged temporally if I want to use configuration software that expects exclusive access to the my serial device whilst keeping the software I'm writing running and talking to the device. This avoids garbled parsing of responses etc and sharing of the serial device from software that otherwise wouldn't play nice.
For my application since there is a model of the Cloud DCM1, the Cloud DCM1e which has ethernet, the configuration software for that can be pointed to a TCP host and port and this device meant that software just worked as if I had a Cloud DCM1e so I had no need for a virtual serial driver. My own software that uses this device again doesn't need to see a virtual serial port.
I did try getting Vircom working on a Windows 11 VM under proxmox and it did work, showing legacy software expecting a COM port can work with this device.
It has other modes where it can be the client rather the a server, such that it bridges the serial device to some remote server somewhere. The obvious use here would be that the server would be another one of these devices, so you could in effect create a (fixed baud rate / fixed destination) virtual serial cable between 2 legacy devices anywhere in the world, in effect mimicking a leased line or modem connection of yesteryear. A fun project might be to write custom firmware for these things such that they have an additional client mode that implements the Hayes AT command set as this would allow the client to 'dial' a particular remote device rather than it being fixed.
Anyway, this review is getting too long so +++ATH”
