The Ethersmart Wildcard is a tiny expansion board that brings web connectivity to any of Mosaic's embedded controllers and operator interfaces.

Mosaic Industries has released its Ethersmart Wildcard, a 2 x 2.5in expansion board that brings web connectivity to any of Mosaic's embedded controllers and operator interfaces. This low-cost peripheral card connects with standard Ethernet cables, allowing instruments to communicate with other computers on a local area network (LAN). With it, you can connect to your controller from a web browser to monitor its status, diagnose problems or update its software.

An application program can send emails to transmit data or alert other computers on the network when significant events occur.

This new member of Mosaic's Wildcard family uses the Lantronix XPort which combines an x86 processor, Flash memory, 10/100Mbit/s Ethernet network interface controller and RJ45 jack.

An onboard UART (universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter) buffers data between XPort and host controller.

Tthe XPort can be shut down while the interface is not in use to conserve power.

The Ethersmart Wildcard implements the SMTP, HTTP, TCP/IP, ICMP, ARP, DHCP protocols to establish and manage communications.

Precoded software allows an application to compose and send e-mail to a specified LAN IP address, open or accept a TCP/IP connection to send and receive binary or ASCII data, and accept connections from a web browser, serving out dynamic web pages in response to queries.

The device Ethernet-enables any of Mosaic's embedded controllers, single-board computers, and operator interfaces.