TCP/IP Devices

Owned by Stephane Cyr (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Sept 19, 2023 by Pierre Hebert
3 min read

TCP/IP Connections

When a device is connected through TCP/IP, the device uses the network cable for communication, so there is no RS232 cable or multi-port board required. Rather, there is an Rx-Universe device session running, usually on the server, which listens on port 33512 for requests coming from devices.  This requires the Rx-Universe server (or whatever computer is running the TCP/IP device session) to have a static IP address.  Similarly, all equipment should also be set up with a static IP address. It also requires the device server computer to have port 33512 open (if firewalls are used).

TCP/IP devices require their own device session to be running (ie you can't have serial and TCP/IP devices both on the same device session). A TCP/IP session is identified by a workstation number that begins with "T" - so, workstation T1 would be a TCP/IP device session, as would T2, etc.  While it is possible to have multiple TCP/IP device sessions in a lab, each session must run on a completely different PC - it is not possible to have two TCP/IP device sessions on the same PC, because this would result in two processes both listening on the same 33512 port.


The Device Parameters screen for a TCP/IP device is the same as a serial OMA device, with changes to the communication parameters area:

  • “Com Port Settings” area will be displayed for serial communication.
  • “TCP/IP Setting” area will be displayed for TCP/IP connection.  Even though you are not using an actual “COM” port, you still have to specify a number in the “Device Port” field to differentiate between each of the TCP/IP devices.
  • NOTE: The number used for the TCP/IP device port must be between 1 and 256, otherwise it will throw a memory violation error and wont allow to communicate. 

For a TCP/IP device:

  • Set the “Session Type” to “Remote”.
  • Enter the “Device IP”, this is the static IP address for the device and is used to link the TCP/IP device to the correct session parameters for the device.
  • “Device Serial #”, this allows you to enter the serial number for the device.  Currently this is for informational purposes only.




Multiple TCP/IP Ports

Starting with version 7.47, the target line can specify a port to use for TCP devices. The default port (per the VC standard) is 33512, but if a different port is desired, that can be specified as an option following the workstation ID. Note, the port must be a value between 30000 and 40000, and of course must be a port not being used for anything else on the computer.

For example, to set up a session listening on port 33530, the target line would look like:


wrun32.exe -c omics.cfg -x -w -y omics6 -y xmlif.dll winomics T2 33530


This allows two (or more) sessions to be running at the same time, listening on different ports. For a lab with many TCP devices, this can result in faster overall response times, by having each session service fewer devices.

Just to clarify, this will only work on a "Fat Client" session and NOT on a "Thin-Client" session.