Wifi to Serial

[Wingnut]

I am looking to automate my sprinkler using WGL Rain8 units. I don't have Cat5 in my garage where the current manual controller exists. I found this on eBay and was wondering if anyone has experience with it for Wifi to Serial. the itach units are nice but at $200 it would be cheaper to run wire. For $88 this seems viable.

http://bit.ly/tdiU8Q

 

[gatchel]

That model, not specifically.

I would use something from Lantronix or Digi if it were me.

http://www.digi.com/products/wireless-modems-peripherals/wireless-serial-servers/

 

[Michael McSharry]

I have many mcsSprinklers customers that go WiFi/Serial. I have had a lot of support requests for units that are not mainstream. A very common problem is very poor quality virtual COM port drivers that may have worked for XP when it came out, but generally never get updated with new iterations of the OS and new OS versions. Easy for a manufacturer to make hardware from a reference, but hard to keep up with the software.

The units in production now that I know are at the low end of the cost spectrum that work for the Rain8Net is the Global Cache Itach unit that tend to sell in the low $100 range. Most of my customers tend to go direct IP from mcsSprinklers rather than through a virtual COM port to avoid the dependence on the Operating System and drivers.