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OT: Is RS-232 ever coming back?

Are they gold-plated oxygen-enhanced Monster cables?

Reply to
Benny Baroni
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I used a serial cable last week to connect my GPS unit to the computer; I uploaded GPS data into my TOPO software for a record of a route I take. Serial ports are frequently used for gaining shell access to various forms of hardware, like this one used to make a wifi radio:

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In that instance they used a USB to RS232 converter, but the router itself uses the RS232 protocol.

I think they heyday of serial ports died off when people stopped using modems and serial mice, but I've still got mine.

Jon

Reply to
Jon Danniken

I still use RS-485 for some security related applications (camera control) , rare, but it's still out there. Most have been replaced by proprietary protocols.

Reply to
G. Morgan

It's not coming back because it never went away. RS-232 is still the lowest common denominator interface for slow data. Most any compiler will setup and run RS-232 trivially. Compare that to understanding all the hardware and software details of USB.

And the program doesn't care whether you have a UART or a USB or Bluetooth interface that emulates a UART. It just runs on the lowest performance hardware.

All my projects use RS-232 for low data rate I/O. Most talk to the hardware serial port on a PDA, but they really don't care whether it's bluetooth or IR or USB. I know nothing about USB, and I like it that way. Plugging on a USB/UART and loading the driver is as hard as it gets.

Reply to
mike

DerbyDad03 wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@nntp.aioe.org:

USB(and USB2.0,3.0) has replaced RS-232,and it's also much faster.

I really doubt any comebacks for RS-232.

Reply to
Jim Yanik

snipped-for-privacy@nntp.aioe.org...

Does this mean that I can throw away my wire-wrapping tool that I used when wire-wrapping on the back of circuit board was a common practice (early 80's and before)?

Reply to
rlz

as soon as you toss it you will need it:)

Reply to
bob haller

Why? Perfect for proto's.

Reply to
G. Morgan

Async is still all over the place. RS-232 is getting rare, though. Most is ground-up or RS-485, anymore. RS-232 is really bad for any distance and for short distances the voltage swing isn't needed.

Reply to
krw

In the early 80's I turned down the first job that I was offered after getting my AAS in Computer Technology, and having been an ET in the USCG.

There was a small company that built some kind of device about the size of a standalone ATM with a wire wrapped back plane that was maybe 3' x 3'.

A worker did the wrapping on one unit and a "duplicating machine" matched his movements and wire wrapped a second unit. After that the machines went for quality control testing.

The job I was offered was to be next in line after quality control if the machines didn't pass. I would have to troubleshoot the wire wrapped backplane and find the problem.

I respectfully declined the position.

Reply to
DerbyDad03

I designed one system that had a half dozen WW boards, each about 12"x18" (Intel Multibus format, if anyone remembers that). One of them had 6000 wires on it, all hand wired. The system used 32 of these, so we did a PCB after the first was completely debugged. ;-) The tech I had working for me was fresh out of Devry (the experienced techs didn't have any intention of actually working). The kid turned out to be a great technician. So much so that he went to the research division and was promoted to the same level as I was. ;-)

Reply to
krw

Industrial grade equipment typically uses a serial port for initial configuration. It becomes a real headache when replacing a unit in the field that has not been pre-configured. It's rare to find a laptop with a serial port anymore, and newer versions of Windows don't include a terminal emulator program. Then you need the appropriate console cable.

By contrast, consumer grade gear typically uses a default IP address or DHCP for configuration via TCP.

Reply to
Bob

Industrial equipment may come in many differant types of programming. Often the Heart interface is used. This can require a special programming card or cable in a laptop. Over the years where I worked there have been many types of interfacing a computer to the instrumentation. When some of it is around

15 to 20 years old, you have to hang on to the older computer stuff. One type that used the serial rs232 port would not work on a newer computer. The newer computers were so much faster than the old computers, they would time out while waiting on the serial input. A few years back the computer boys were begging us to look at home to see if anyone had an old PS2 3 inch drive. A $ 50,000 piece of equipment used that type of drive to load a program and the drive had went bad. Some of the stuff requires a computer with a pcmcia interface slot to put in a special interface card. Try to find that on a newer computer. Industries seem to keep equipment around for many years. About 10 years ago we installed a piece of equipment that was origionally built around 1920. This was then interfaced with some computer controlled equipment.
Reply to
Ralph Mowery

And people call me crazy for hanging on to older gear. ^_^

TDD

Reply to
The Daring Dufas

A lot of the older still in service telephone equipment is wire wrap and sometimes it can be a pain to repair. O_o

TDD

Reply to
The Daring Dufas

Most don't even have a 9 pin RS232 or a 25 pin parallel port. The flavour of the day is USB on personal computers, with some Serial Attached Scsi (SAS) on workstation and server apps.

Reply to
clare

I can't throw the cables out, but I did make a special drawer for stuff I know I will never need anymore. SCSI IDE and floppy cables. I also threw in some other cables I don't even remember what they were used for. There was some S-video stuff and I put most of my phone cords. The phones I use now are cordless. I have two bases and four extensions. Both of the bases are plugged into UPSs so we can still use them if the power goes out.

Reply to
Metspitzer

I never found that WW was any problem to debug. In fact it was pretty easy. All nodes are probable and in a pinch a wire can be removed to break feedback.

Reply to
krw

My elderly IC programmer/reader still uses RS-232 for data transfer to the host machine, and I've used RS-232 a few times for data recovery work in recent years where it's easier to hook vintage hardware up to a more modern PC via serial than it is to access old media directly on the PC. I've got a handful of "modern-ish" PCs stockpiled which have serial (and parallel) ports on them.

I've never been a big fan of USB - it's just too quirky and over- complicated for anything that doesn't *need* a high transfer speed.

Sadly it's getting hard to find a lot of this kind of stuff these days :(

cheers

Jules

Reply to
Jules Richardson

My elderly IC programmer/reader still uses RS-232 for data transfer to the host machine, and I've used RS-232 a few times for data recovery work in recent years where it's easier to hook vintage hardware up to a more modern PC via serial than it is to access old media directly on the PC. I've got a handful of "modern-ish" PCs stockpiled which have serial (and parallel) ports on them.

I've never been a big fan of USB - it's just too quirky and over- complicated for anything that doesn't *need* a high transfer speed.

Sadly it's getting hard to find a lot of this kind of stuff these days :(

cheers

Jules

Reply to
Jules Richardson

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