LAVA has expanded its Ether-Serial Link serial device server line with wireless Ethernet variants of its ESL 1-232-DB9, ESL 2-232-DB9, ESL 1-232-RJ45, and ESL 2-232-RJ45 units. WiFi ESL 1-232-DB9, WiFi ESL 1-232-RJ45   WiFi ESL 2-232-DB9, WiFi ESL 2-232-RJ45 These new wireless serial device servers support 802.11a or 802.11b+g modes, with choices of WEP 64, WEP 128, WPA (TKIP), or WPA2 (AES) encryption. They retain all the functionality of the standard LAVA Ether-Serial Links, with DHCP/manual IP address configuration, intuitive […]

Shergroup Textiles runs its DOS-based accounting system “RealWorld” inside an emulator on a SCO Unix server. This accounting package has a virtual serial interface, but no physical serial port exists on the server. Users at Shergroup can access this accounting package through dedicated terminals. One exception exists however: a user on a Windows system, who needs to run another Windows-based package as well. Shergroup has developed a solution that provides the best of both worlds for this user: on that […]

You’re probably aware that all LAVA boards are covered by the LAVA Lifetime Warranty. We don’t beat around the bush — the bottom line is that if your LAVA card fails to perform in its intended use, we will fix or replace it. What makes us confident enough to offer this warranty? It’s simple: we engineer and manufacture LAVA boards ourselves, so we know our products inside out. But more than that, we test every LAVA board individually to ensure […]

Adamas Technikos Inc. is a generalist in the computer services industry, providing systems and integration since 1990. In that time they have relied on LAVA to supply them with reliable products, knowing that the cost in time and reputation of installing unreliable, so-called “cost-effective” components does not save money in the long run. SSerial-PCI to card swipe As a result, Adamas Technikos’ reputation for bulletproof computer solutions has meant that word of mouth is enough to fill their customer pipeline. […]

Predictive dialers, at their most basic, are Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) hardware or software devices that dial a list of telephone numbers, and, when a call is answered, pass that call to a human calling agent, who initiates a conversation with the person answering the call. Beyond this basic function, predictive dialers also manage the distribution of calls to agents, manage unanswered calls by applying rescheduling algorithms, minimize agents’ wait times, and generally make the most effective use of telephony […]

We’ve just put out our newest white paper, on the subject of Power over Ethernet (PoE), also known as IEEE 802.3at. This technology makes it possible to deliver power to networked devices simply and easily, using existing network cabling. Power can be added to a network using either PoE endpoint devices (these are, for example, PoE routers and switches), or through PoE midspan devices (devices that can inject power into an existing network segment). Power is delivered to PoE devices […]

It’s a common problem we see at LAVA — customers calling up with cabling issues. The most problematic are RJ-45 connectors providing RS-232 interfaces, since there is no solidly standardized pin-out. This issue of RJ-45 to RS-232 connection crops up frequently in POS (Point of Sale) systems, and shows up in other hardware as well. A recent call to our support lines exemplifies the problem. A customer called up with a question: why would the LAVA Ether-Serial Link 4-232-RJ45 that […]

We’ve had a number of POS system installers wanting to take output from a POS system to a serial printer, and also send it to a DVR (Digital Video Recorder) or NVR (Network Video Recorder) over an IP connection. Integrating POS and video surveillance is a growing business, and some people are finding it a key to success with their customers. Business Solutions Magazine (June 2012) had a cover story on just this topic, pointing out how Datatek was making […]

New Microsoft-certified drivers are now available for online download for the range of LAVA PCIe cards: SSerial-PCIe SSerial-PCIe/LP DSerial-PCIe DSerial-PCIe/LP Quattro-PCIe SP-PCIe 2SP-PCIe [9,9] 2SP-PCIe [9,25] Parallel-PCIe Parallel-PCIe/LP These drivers are certified for Windows 7 32-bit and 64-bit.

GPSes are becoming commonplace, not just as the standalone devices we have in our cars, but perhaps even more often as a capability built into our smartphones. In the majority of cases, the data that those GPSes generate is used by and stored in the device itself, but occasionally people want to access that data in other ways. A typical instance is when someone wants to download waypoints, routes, or tracks for use in computer-based mapping software or to transfer […]

Vehicles manufactured after 1996 have a capability that few drivers realize exists: your vehicle has an interface to its computer that can provide a panoply of information about your vehicle’s operation and status, second by second. This interface, the On-Board Diagnostics (OBD) port, gives information on speed, acceleration, fuel use, temperatures (of oil, coolant, air intake, etc,), engine load, rpms, electrical voltages, fault conditions, and much more. If you’ve ever had your “Check Engine” light go on, and not known […]

Eye in the Sky (www.eyeintheskycams.com) wanted to develop a simple and effective method of collecting receipt/journal printer information from a Ruby POS system, print it, and simultaneously send it to an NVR (Network Video Recorder) for text overlay. The solution required taking the serial port printer outputs from a Ruby POS system to a dumb line splitter, which passed all the serial lines directly to the printer, and also passed the ground (GND) and transmit (Tx) lines to the LAVA […]

Computer Automated Measurement and Control (CAMAC) is a long-established standard for data acquisition hardware, often used in the nuclear and particle physics fields. The good news about CAMAC systems (when enclosed in a chassis, they are called CAMAC “crates”) is that they seemingly last forever. The bad news is that they are very expensive, often customized, hard to replace, and interfaced to increasingly obsolete computers. CAMAC crate In the case of the DSPT 6001 / 6002 CAMAC Controllers, interfacing used […]

The interest in an RS-232 serial port for the Raspberry Pi has LAVA considering making a simple GPIO-to-RS-232 DB-9 serial port board. This little item would plug onto the Raspberry Pi’s GPIO pin header, take the Raspi’s UART signals up to RS-232 levels, and present them on a conventional DB-9 (aka DE-9) connector. It would save a lot of people the trouble of individually sourcing components and parts, futzing around with pinouts, line drivers, and soldering, and ending up with […]