19 Aug
2012
19 Aug
'12
11:14 a.m.
On 08/19/2012 02:04 AM, Mouse wrote:
I don't quite see it like that. Most USB devices seem to come with a
driver (OK, memroy sticks don't, but just about everything else does).
Of that driver is not avaialble for USB host machine/OS then you are
likely to have problems.
It is quite possible to make a device that connects to a PC DE( 'RS232'
port and which, when used wit hthe driver that comes with it, 'just
works'. No problems with the connecotr wiring, setting the baud rate and
other parameters, that's all taken care for.
The differnece is that the second device is a lot easier to use on older
machines that don't have a USB interface.
Like RS232, it is, strictly speaking. Also like
RS232, the standard is
widely ignored in at least some respects (I've got almost as many
male-to-female extender cables with host-port male on one end and
host-port female on the other as I do devices; such cables should not
exist at all). Also like RS232, the hardware is only part of the
problem; the software layers above are usually at least as important.
Agreed mostly...The USB standard isn't "creatively interpreted"
anywhere near as badly as RS232. It's not even in the same league in
that department. That's the only thing I don't like about RS232.
But then, 2/3/7 will get you talking to 98% of everything out there,
and for the stuff that needs more, one of those little DB25->LEDs->DB25
boxes makes short work of nearly everything else. I do very much like
RS232 in general; I'm quite pleased that it didn't "die off" as
everyone
(mostly suits with a vested interest in USB) predicted it would. It
only left the desktop market.
Well, as just about all my machinjes, going back over 40 years, have
RS232 prots, I certainly like it.
A few weeks abck I was given a rather nic 'Balck Box' RS232 tester. I
don't mean a breakout box, although one of those came with it. It mean
oen of those things that grabes the data on the TxD and RxD lines, grabs
the modem control lines at the same time, and so on. I was told that
nobody uses RS232 any more. But I can certainly use it...
ObCC. That unit contains a Z180 CPU, a Z8530 serial chip (yes it handles
synchronous data too), 128K bytes of RAM, a 64K byte PEROM, and a bit of
TTL. SO I guess it's a classic computer.
-tony