Quick Start

CONX-SFP Quick start quide

Default details

IP Address setting
- DHCP enabled
- Static IP address 192.168.0.232/24 if DHCP times out (under development)
MAC Address
- Wetatronics range 04-58-5D-00-00-00 to 04-58-5D-0F-FF-FF (hex)
Login for ssh and telent
- Usernane weta
- Password wetatronics
Serial Ports
- Two serial ports enabled - software flow control
- Serial Port 1 - 9600 N81 no local echo
- Serial Port 2 - 9600 N81 no local echo
CLI - Command Line Interface
- ssh enabled - TCP 22
- telnet enabled - TCP 23

Connectivity

Several options for connecting to the serial ports are supported

CLI

To exit the session enter the break sequence Ctrl+] Ctrl+]

To change the serial port BAUD config serial 1 baud 115200

Change is applied immediately, optional save the changes to persist
system save

Telnet Direct

Telnet to the TCP port to connect directly to the serial port

Serial 1 - TCP 3001
Serial 2 - TCP 3002

telnet 192.168.0.232 3001

To exit use the local telnet client escape
Ctrl+] q

SSH Direct

SSH with a username and append the port [1|2] optionally append a BAUD rate ssh weta:1:115200@192.168.0.232

To exit the session enter the break sequence Ctrl+] Ctrl+]

SSH ControlMaster Limitation

The CONX-SFP supports one SSH channel per connection. SSH clients using ControlMaster (connection multiplexing) will experience (cosmetic) issues when attempting to open additional sessions.

What is ControlMaster? ControlMaster is an OpenSSH feature that reuses an existing SSH connection for multiple sessions, reducing connection overhead. Oftern set in ~/.ssh/config.

Symptoms:

First SSH connection works normally
Second SSH session from same client will see warning messages such as: mux_client_request_session: session request failed: Session open refused by peer ControlSocket /tmp/sshcontrol-xxxx already exists, disabling multiplexing

Workarounds:

Disable ControlMaster for CONX-SFP - Add to ~/.ssh/config:
```
Host 192.168.0.232
    ControlMaster no
```

Override on command line:

ssh -o ControlMaster=no weta@192.168.0.232

Close master connection before reconnecting:

ssh -O exit weta@192.168.0.232
ssh weta@192.168.0.232

CLI access via the serial port

Connect a standard Cisco style serial console cable with a roll-over adaptor (flips 1-8 to 8-1)
Use a terminal emulator such as Minicom to connect at 9600 N81 by default - the terminal emulator speed must match the port speed for the break sequence to be detected

Send a serial Break Sequence - Minicom example Ctrl+A F
This provides CONX-SFP CLI access to set a static IP address or update firmware

** Hardware Break - CLI Active ***
Type 'help' for commands, 'exit' to quit
serial-cli>

CLI set a static IP address

Current configuration can be shown

serial-cli> show network
Network Status:
  Current Runtime Configuration:
    IP Address: 0.0.0.0
    Netmask: 0.0.0.0
    Gateway: 0.0.0.0

  Configured (Saved) Settings:
    DHCP Enabled: Yes
    IP Address: 192.168.0.232
    Hostname: Wetatronics_0036
    SSH Port: 22
    Primary DNS: 8.8.8.8
    Secondary DNS: 1.1.1.1

Use the config network command to apply changes

serial-cli> config network
Usage: config network <subcommand>
  dhcp [on|off]                    - Configure DHCP
  static <ip> <mask> <gw>          - Set static IP
  hostname <name>                  - Set hostname
  ssh-port <port>                  - Set SSH port
  dns <primary> [secondary]        - Set DNS servers
  dns                              - Show DNS servers

Example disabling DHCP and sending static ip address

serial-cli> config network dhcp off
DHCP disabled
serial-cli> config network static 192.168.0.10 255.255.255.0 192.168.0.254
Static IP configuration set:
  IP:      192.168.0.10
  Netmask: 255.255.255.0
  Gateway: 192.168.0.254
  DHCP:    disabled
Note: Save configuration with 'system save' and reboot to apply

Save the changes and restart the SFP to apply the changes

serial-cli> system save

Saving configuration to flash...
Configuration saved to flash successfully
serial-cli> system restart

Pinout

The RJ45 connector provides either:

One RS-232 serial port with hardware flow control or
Two RS-232 serial ports without hardware flow control

The Pinout is designed so a straight through Ethernet cable can be used to connect to network device console ports using the Cisco style standard pinout
This works with Cisco, Juniper, Palo Alto, Arista, Mikrotik and many more

A Y splitter cable can be used breaking out the single RJ45 into two RJ45 sockets for two serial ports

Looking at the end of the SFP mounted with thw label up in a device
alt text

Pin	Function
1	RX2 / CTS - Receive Data Serial 2 or CTS for Serial 1
2	Spare - Future feature
3	RX1 - Receive Data Serial 1
4	GND - Ground
5	GND - Ground
6	TX1 - Transmit Data Serial 1
7	PWR - Power for Future feature
8	TX2 / RTS - Transit Data Serial 2 or RTS for Serial 1

Network Device support

The CONX-SFP emulates a 1000BASE-LX SFP to the Network device

Currently speed negotiation needs to be disabled, we are working on options so this won’t be required in future

Juniper

Disable negotiation and set the interface speed to 1G

ge-0/1/0 {
    description "Wetatronics CONX-SFP console server";
    speed 1g;
    ether-options {
        no-auto-negotiation;
    }
    unit 0 {
        family ethernet-switching {
            interface-mode access;
            vlan {
                members management;
            }
        }
    }
}

Cisco IOS

Disable speed negotiation on the interface

interface GigabitEthernet1/0/49
 description Wetatronics CONX-SFP console server
 switchport access vlan 10
 switchport mode access
 speed nonegotiate
 spanning-tree portfast

Mikrotik RouterOS

Disable speed negotiation on the interface

/interface ethernet
set [ find default-name=sfp4 ] auto-negotiation=no