Gym equipment!?

[Oops_my_bad]

Hi,

 

I have just discovered in their infinite wisdom our school has taken delivery of several pieces of Gym equipment, and been told "oh yeah, there is a network port on them so they can be networked!""

 

Indeed, there is an RJ45 port on each piece of equipment but it's not for ethernet - it's some kind of proprietry signalling for sports equipment.

 

They have supplied what converts this obscure RJ45 into a serial and then into a USB for plugging into a PC. My problem is the PC is on the other end of the room and cannot be moved

 

Anyone know the sort of cable I would need to run from the machine to the front of the room? Preferably a USB connection at the PC end. Its about 15m in distance so presumably this rules out serial!?

 

Anyone had any experience of this type of thing?

 

TIA

[plexer]

Can you not use a longer patch loead then plug their other device into that?

 

That distance is fine.

 

Ben

[srochford]

You can get USB extenders for up to 45m - Videk Online

[p858snake]

So they have a RJ45 on the device then they supply a RJ45 to serial lead (like cisco do with their kit)?

 

If so just just run a straight though rj45 up to the computer and terminate it at a port then the lead just plugs into that.

[Vegas]

Oh god no, please don't tell our PE staff or else they will have us tyring to connect up the trampoline wirelessly!!

[srochford]

Oh god no, please don't tell our PE staff or else they will have us tyring to connect up the trampoline wirelessly!!

 

Seems reasonable to me. Get the technology staff involved and I'm sure you could generate power from the trampoline. You could then have a wireless data connection and a wireless power source.

 

Green IT - coming to a sports hall near you soon :-)

[mpe]

Hi,

 

I have just discovered in their infinite wisdom our school has taken delivery of several pieces of Gym equipment, and been told "oh yeah, there is a network port on them so they can be networked!""

 

Indeed, there is an RJ45 port on each piece of equipment but it's not for ethernet - it's some kind of proprietry signalling for sports equipment.

 

They have supplied what converts this obscure RJ45 into a serial and then into a USB for plugging into a PC. My problem is the PC is on the other end of the room and cannot be moved

 

Anyone know the sort of cable I would need to run from the machine to the front of the room? Preferably a USB connection at the PC end. Its about 15m in distance so presumably this rules out serial!?

 

Depends what you mean by "serial" if it's RS232 then it will go a lot further than 15m (in some cases several km) you can also get USB to CAT5 units which will do at least 40m.

[Oops_my_bad]

Depends what you mean by "serial" if it's RS232 then it will go a lot further than 15m (in some cases several km) you can also get USB to CAT5 units which will do at least 40m.

 

It looks like it's straight through RS232 but I could be wrong

 

I don't think USB-cat5 units will work in this case, the presentation is of RJ45 but it's not actually a network connection, if you know what I mean..

 

Urgh.. wish they wouldn't buy this cr*p

[john]

Sorry if I missed a bit of info here, but couldn't you run a CAT5 to each machine, put an RJ45 end on it, and wire it to an RJ45 socket by the PC and put there cable and adaptor thing into that and then into the PC? That way despite it not being a Data / LAN Port the signals will still travel down and work fine.

[mac_shinobi]

dont staff have there own laptops ?

 

If the laptop does not have the required ports then maybe get a sufficient laptop from ebay or even cpltd ( simon ) or the likes ?