Patton Has The Remotest Idea! Models 360 and 3022 Are Great For Remote Configuration

Patton Electronics has always been the champ when it comes to RS-232 products. And though some fingerwaggers might label RS-232 as "obsolete," fascinating applications for Patton RS-232 products just seem to keep cropping up-even in modern telecommunications scenarios. Take, for example, two recent real-life applications that use Patton products to facilitate RS-232 remote hardware configuration. In both applications the basic scenario is the same: a local product support technician wants to configure one or more hardware devices in a remote location. Let's take a closer look at both applications: In the first application, a piece of asynchronous hardware at a company's remote site periodically dials up a piece of asynchronous hardware at the company's headquarters-using standard V.34 modems-to download RS-232 data (see Figure 1, below). A technician at the headquarters also wants to send configuration commands to that same piece of remote hardware, using the device's separate serial configuration port. The problem? How to accomplish both tasks simultaneously with only two modems and the single POTS line connection. On one hand the technician wants to keep the line completely free for automatic data transfer between the two devices (so a mechanical or electronic switching solution is ruled out). On the other hand, the technician wants to avoid the expense of installing another modem at both sites and procuring a second POTS line merely to do periodic remote configuration.