About serial shell mode

Some controller circuit boards have a small 4-pin jumper connector, commonly called the mode jumper. To put these controllers in serial shell mode, you put a two-pin jumper on certain connector pins, and cycle power to the unit. Upon system boot, this makes the system shell available at the controller’s primary RS-232 (COM1) port using pre-defined serial parameters of: 115200, 8, N, 1.

Using a serial terminal program such as PuTTY, you can then log on with platform credentials and access the system shell menu. After changing platform IP address parameters, a reboot command from the menu is necessary, and you remove (or reposition) the mode jumper. The controller reboots using the changed IP address parameters, and its COM1 port and otherwise operates as normally configured.

NOTE: If using COM1 for any other application, be sure to move the 2-pin jumper from the serial-shell position to the normal position before rebooting from the serial system shell.

Apart from physical access to the controller, you need the following items:

A working RS-232 port on your PC
Usually this is a DB-9 connector with a specific Windows ComN assignment (say Com1 or Com2). However, newer notebook PCs may require a USB-to-RS-232 adapter, installed with a Windows driver.
Terminal emulation software, such as PuTTY (free open source application)
A serial cable to connect between your PC’s serial ComN port to the controller’s RS-232 port, plus any adapter, if necessary.
- The JACE-3E and JACE-6E use a DB-9 connector. Use a standard DB-9 to DB-9 null modem cable.
- For controllers with RS-232 ports that use RJ-45 connectors, such as JACE-603 or JACE-645, the following parts, apply:
  10148 — Adapter, RJ-45 to DB-9, null modem type
  
  10181 — Silver satin RJ-45 patch cable, 10 ft. (connects adapter to RJ-45 type RS-232 port)
  
  Patch cables are also available in lengths 4 ft. (10180) and 25 ft. (10182)
  
  NOTE: If sourcing your own RJ-45 to DB-9 adapter, refer to the Mounting and Wiring Guide of the appropriate controller for the pinouts used on the RS-232 port.
A 2-pin jumper block for the controller’s serial shell jumper pins—in most cases this should already be installed on the normal position pins.

About serial shell mode

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