Building an Ethernet to RS485 converter

[Kounista]

Hi everyone,

Part of my final year project i have to build an Ethernet to RS485 converter. I started two days ago so i'm still collecting information. I wanted to know which microcontrollers would be suitable for this application, especially those coming from NEC or Fujitsu.

The final goal is to remote control a personalizable number of I/O components that will be connected to this converter via RS485.

I already started chcking these two: PIC18F97J60, IC ENC28J60

And I have been told about Ethernet controllers from Realtek but i'm not sure if they are suitable for an industrial application.

Anyway, i'm a little bit lost. I've already worked on some PIC16 and PIC18 based applications but i think they were quite simple compared to this.

I hope that was clear enough. If you have any suggestions or want clarifications, i'm all yours.

Thanks everyone.

 

[FvM]

Any microprocessor available on the market, equipped with an ethernet controller, or using an already built-in interface can do the job. So the decision should be made based on existing knowlege and available software components, e.g. network drivers. Some manufacturers have development kits containing the complete hardware platform for the project, perhaps only missing the RS485 driver. To mention a recent one, the Microchip PIC32 Ethernet Starter Kit comes with the complete toolchain and many ready-to-run network application examples.

 

[Kounista]

Hi, thanks for your quick answer.

It seems that a big number of Ethernet controller interface circuits are based on the Microchip Ethernet controller ENC28J60. It seems to work well with different microcontrollers and i have found some example projects so i'm going to focus on this one.

I'll keep you (guys) updated. I'm still open to any other suggestions.

 

[Kounista]

Update: I finally chose to work with the ENC28J60 since it's the solution proposed by nearly everyone.

The thing is, the ENC28J60 is supposed to work with nearly every micro controller on the market, if we pay attention to the voltage levels, and i'm kind of forced to use a Fujitsu (MB90543GS) or NEC (still to be determined) micro controller. So i wanted to know if someone have already worked with ENC28J60 mounted to a host controller other than a PIC18 (or bigger).

Are there issues in implementing the Microchip TCP/IP Stack? does it need modifications?

This thread doesn't seem to be very popular, maybe this problem has been solved before? Please let me know guys, i'm really willing to learn a lot from this project.

I'll keep posting updates, maybe this is going to be useful for someone else!