Global Caché iTach, IP to Serial with PoE

Um, this thing's alright. I bought it to be out-of-band to the serial port of enterprise wifi access-points. For starters, there's no authentication required to get at the serial port, and no way to turn that on. There's no decent generic way to access it the serial port either, and it handles CR/LF's a little weird. As a software developer, I had no problem cooking up a little driver for it, but nothing exists unless you're both willing and able to run their software (anything outside Windows or Mac and you're out of luck on the software).Otherwise, price is right. Web interface is poor but functional. Seems stable although I did manage to crash it port scanning it, but PoE saved the day on that.

I do not believe the average home consumer purchases this type of device, so I'm writing this for the semi educated consumer that understands what they are buying or trying to achieve.This device acts as a "bridge" between two commonly used protocols: TCP and RS232 (Serial). Global Cache is one of the leaders in these types of devices, used by many home automation companies to integrate home automation controllers with receivers, TVs, and just about every type of device that supports RS232.Here are the two things you need to know about these devices:1. Centralized home automation is not just for the uber-rich or the professional installer anymore. A Do it Yourself (DIY) community of people are out there that have built many great tools for building your own home automation solution. With the communization of devices like an iPad, you can use software to design your own remote control. These types of devices are critical to controlling devices in your house.2. RS232 is substantially better at delivering commands to a device than infrared. Infrared (what your remote control uses) can fail at a number of points, such as the device not receiving the command due to interference. If you have no other choice, certainly use infrared (I do as well), but RS232 or a direct TCP command is preferred. Additionally, infrared does not give device feedback (such as acknowledgement that the device received the command, or the ability to ask a device a question - What is the currently volume level?) where RS232 and TCP do. So, if you want to communicate with a device via a home network, RS232 or TCP are preferred.These devices work great with a home automation package called Indigo by Perceptive Automation, and can be integrated using a plugin called Global Cache. Certainly these devices can be used with just about any home automation system, but these are two of the best for the DIY market. Feel free to reach to me if you have questions.

Using these with the Roomie app changes everything. You can build as very powerful whole home control system with these and the IR units. At some point, many or most electronic system components that require control will do so via IP. Until then, these Global Cache devices are fantastic. I used the PoE devices so that I can cable to the component I want to run with only a single IP CAT6 cable. This will make a change to an IP controllable device even easier in the future.

One of the few devices I've ever purchased that works flawlessly, the first time, and every time, no matter what I do with it. If something's wrong, it's always been a typo in the code I've written, or a connection I forgot to make. I have the PoE version, and one less adapter is always welcome; I wish more manufacturers would offer PoE options. Right now I'm using this with a Nuvo GC, MPS-4-E (found the IP interface to be unreliable) and CQC. Couldn't be happier.

I was not able to find a utility to create the virtual comm port for a remote serial device requiring 115k baud. I contacted support, but they basically told me to rely on a third party app that I was not able create the port. I even tried the paid version. I did some research and all forums led to different third party utilities to create the virtual port, but I was not able to get any to work. I even tried different Windows versions and different computers.The three starts is really related to support. I know Global Cache is a great company and I decided to go with this device since they are considered to be the best for this type of device.