Poll: How many of you still use a parallel or serial port?

[Special K]

Originally posted by: thepd7

Originally posted by: Special K

Originally posted by: thepd7

Originally posted by: Megatomic
At work I do to connect to various pieces of equipment like PLCs, flow computers, VFDs, etc. It blows me away that in the 21st century I'm still connecting to industrial equipment via comm port.

Do you understand what serial is/does? It's perfect for industrial applications, that's why most people haven't and won't try to get off the 232 or 485 standard.

Isn't USB just a very fast serial port? Why can't they switch all this equipment to USB? Some microcontrollers already use a USB interface.

Well, C# is better than C, why isn't everyone using C#?

It's an ancient, really solid standard. It will be around for much longer in industry.

I think the difference between C# and C is much greater than the difference between a serial port and a USB port.

I was hoping someone could elaborate a bit more on the technical aspect of it. USB has been around since 1996. Is that not long enough for it to be considered a proven, stable interface? Serial has obviously been around longer, but has it really improved much in recent years?

 

[tmc]

need my parallel port for my jp1 remote

 

[SlowSpyder]

At work we lease Windows CE powered handheld scanners to customers. They still sync ONLY via serial port. Big company and legacy stuff, takes a while to move forward.

At home? No.

 

[PingSpike]

I have a serial modem, and I bought a USB -> serial port converter to use it. It works like shit! The driver bluescreens the computer at seemingly random times. Have you ever heard of a serial port bluescreening a computer? Of course not! They've been around for decades, if there were problems some guy with a dos disk in the 1980s figured them out.

You don't have to put them on the backplate of an ATX motherboard...thats fine! Just, for the love of god...put a header on the motherboard! It shouldn't take up hardly any real estate and your handful of users won't have to play "find the USB/PCI card that sort works for me" with newegg.

 

[0roo0roo]

not anymore, i disable them in bios

used to have a laserjet 1100 that used parallel , but it started to grab more paper than it shoulda..that pos.

 

[bonkers325]

the programs i use at work use serial port security dongles.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Originally posted by: LtPage1
I have never once in my life used either. True story.

Are you like 10?

 

[CADsortaGUY]

Originally posted by: Megatomic
At work I do to connect to various pieces of equipment like PLCs, flow computers, VFDs, etc. It blows me away that in the 21st century I'm still connecting to industrial equipment via comm port.

^this

 

[qaa541]

I use serial ports all the time for Cisco Routers/Switches and Sun equipment. I really wish 1 DB9 serial port was still being left on notebooks. We keep around a bunch of Thinkpad T30's just because they have a serial port. USB to serial converters are a necessity, but sometimes I forget to bring it where I am going which usually means another walk back to my desk from the lab.

 

[LikeLinus]

We still use serial port (RS-422 interface) to control DVCAM decks in our studio.

 

[CADsortaGUY]

Originally posted by: Megatomic

Originally posted by: thepd7

Originally posted by: Megatomic
At work I do to connect to various pieces of equipment like PLCs, flow computers, VFDs, etc. It blows me away that in the 21st century I'm still connecting to industrial equipment via comm port.

Do you understand what serial is/does? It's perfect for industrial applications, that's why most people haven't and won't try to get off the 232 or 485 standard.

Yeah, it's just slow and my day to day laptop doesn't have any. Our Toughbook broke last week and I have no way of attaching to our PLCs and whatnot. I've gotta find a USB to Serial adapter before the plant needs me to have one.

^this again.

232 and 485 are WAY too slow in today's manufacturing environment. There is too much data logging and "smart" field devices.
I was in a plant the other day and an operator thought he was being funny when I opened IE - he asked if I was loading up some pron to download to the machine. :roll: EthernetIP(or TCP/IP for you non-AB guys) is how I programmed the drives, and monitored them during startup(using IE). I hate non-ethernet machines unless it's just a single rack of I/O. It makes no sense in this day and age to be using controlNET, DeviceNET, Modbus, Modbus+, or any of the other BS protocols. With EthernetIP / TCP-IP you have no fancy cables or stupid ass connectors. Just plain old Cat5 or most recommend shielded Cat.

As for serial - I got my ass chewed the other day for breaking one of our 2 remaining PIC modules. I dropped it from a mezz and it shattered. I can't wait to see how much that "ancient" technology costs to replace

 

[thepd7]

Originally posted by: Special K

Originally posted by: thepd7

Originally posted by: Special K

Originally posted by: thepd7

Originally posted by: Megatomic
At work I do to connect to various pieces of equipment like PLCs, flow computers, VFDs, etc. It blows me away that in the 21st century I'm still connecting to industrial equipment via comm port.

Do you understand what serial is/does? It's perfect for industrial applications, that's why most people haven't and won't try to get off the 232 or 485 standard.

Isn't USB just a very fast serial port? Why can't they switch all this equipment to USB? Some microcontrollers already use a USB interface.

Well, C# is better than C, why isn't everyone using C#?

It's an ancient, really solid standard. It will be around for much longer in industry.

I think the difference between C# and C is much greater than the difference between a serial port and a USB port.

I was hoping someone could elaborate a bit more on the technical aspect of it. USB has been around since 1996. Is that not long enough for it to be considered a proven, stable interface? Serial has obviously been around longer, but has it really improved much in recent years?

I don't know all the technical details on USB, I am pretty familiar with serial though.

Yes USB is proven and stable. Instruments ARE moving to USB from both Serial and GPIB.

As with many things, defense drives a lot of this though. And the fact is, when they buy stuff they normally have to use it for FOREVER. It's like pulling teeth to get defense off a particular standard. We have customers using 4-year old technology (hardware and software). Not just using it, BUYING it. Literally paying MORE money for older, crappier hardware and paying the same amount for 3 versions back of a software.

I was just amazed that someone who knows what a serial port is and works with industrial equipment would be surprised that we are still using them (in reference to the original guy I quoted).

And yeah, I would say USB over Serial is similar to C# over C. Both great new standards with many more added features but the old standard is so solid it will take a long time for people to move off them.

 

[ComputerWizKid]

Originally posted by: tmc
need my parallel port for my jp1 remote

Same here I have a Radio Shack Model 15-2116 8 in one universal remote

 

[dighn]

parallel: JTAG debugger, serial: custom hardware debug output, got a microcontroller programmer too that I plan to use again soon

 

[dighn]

Originally posted by: Special K
I think the difference between C# and C is much greater than the difference between a serial port and a USB port.

I was hoping someone could elaborate a bit more on the technical aspect of it. USB has been around since 1996. Is that not long enough for it to be considered a proven, stable interface? Serial has obviously been around longer, but has it really improved much in recent years?

USB is a lot more complicated than plain-old RS232/485 serial. The protocol's more complicated, processors usually don't include USB support so you have to add another part to do it and deal with the interfacing, while they almost always support plain-old serial. Then you have to deal with drivers on the computer.

For a lot of industrial applications, there is simply no need to go through all that trouble. Add to that fact that serial is so widely used, sometimes you just have to use it. Industrial equipment aren't updated as rapidly as consumer electronics. If it works, you don't touch it, and if you need to get a new one, you want it to work the same way.

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: alkemyst
I am hating the serial ports are being left off devices now. They are invaluable for datalogging. USB to Serial adapters *sometimes* work but the big issue with them is no thumbscrews.

RS232 USB adapters suck. Higher latency, less bandwidth, slower overall, and like you said compatibility.

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: Goosemaster

Originally posted by: xSauronx

Originally posted by: spidey07
I absolutely have to have a serial port when I put my hands on network gear. I was given a laptop with no serial port one time. WTF! You can't give a network guy a computer without a serial port.

I was waiting for this post. I expected that if this was in the networking forum it would be almost all YES

i dont use either, at the moment, i expect that to change in the fall.

<---forced to use an adapter since his current pc doesn't have one

Get a true hardware based RS232 port and gain the performance and compatibility that it provides. They aren't too expensive. Most of these cards use MOSchip, it seems to be very fast and stable (I have instaled). . The SIIGRS232 apperantly uses Texas Instrunments chips, but they do cost more and may possibly worth it because MOSchip requires proprietary drivers; TI may not. Though I do need confirmation on the TI drivers.