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Why Do Some Modern Computers Still Have Serial Ports?:
While the parallel port is now safely buried in the grave of obsolescence, it may seem odd that the humble, slow serial port is still around. But as it turns out, bit-by-bit, this humble communications port has become essential.
[...] Serial ports are slow with the standard speed at the high end of the range coming in at a pedestrian 115.2Kbps. At that speed, it would take you almost a day to transfer 1GB of data! That's under ideal circumstances, and things can be much, much slower than that.
If we have USB, and serial ports are so slow and comparatively bulky, why the heck do some computers still have them? There are a few reasons, but the most important ones include:
- Lots, and lots, of industrial and scientific equipment are still in service and use serial ports to interface.
- It's simple, reliable, well understood, and much cheaper to implement than other more modern port types.
- Hobbyists have uses, such as programming microcontrollers.
Do you still use the serial port, or do you depend on equipment that does? I have noticed that it is still widely used in medical equipment but are there other fields in which the serial port is the standard interface?
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Tuesday March 14 2023, @03:04PM (3 children)
My solution has long been to just simply rolling my own from chips from a reputable source. In the end, it's just faster. And I have the production means at hand to just do it easily.
Quite frankly, if you calculate it all in, the few 100 bucks for a sensible production environment quickly become pennies when you consider the time wasted on cheap knockoffs.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday March 14 2023, @03:49PM (2 children)
Agreed... if you've got the space for it. My garage does house and yard/garden maintenance, car mechanics, laundry, woodworking, minor construction, cycling and other hobbies, and I try to keep a car in there too in a 20'x24' space that just doesn't leave much for a proper solder station, etc.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Sunday March 19 2023, @11:42AM (1 child)
That just takes a bit of space organization. I lived in a 300 sqft apartment, you learn to squeeze every single cubic inch out of that space. There's usually a lot of unused space above things like beds or desks. Back in that apartment, my "tinkering station" was above my bed, mounted on a spring loaded board that I could drag down to about bed-level to use it and return up to the ceiling when I needed to sleep. You want to make ABSOLUTEY sure, though, that the wall you mount it to can handle that and that you know how to mount something like that... or you may be in for a rude awakening. Quite literally so.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday March 19 2023, @03:05PM
In my last apartment I had the 25" tube TV in the closet on a shelf with pulleys to raise and lower it as desired. The reverse loft idea is cool, no climbing into bed, but I never could get comfortable sleeping under ceiling anchors, too many heavy things (all mounted by others) have fallen without warning around me over the years.
The problem with the woodwork shop is the dust, it gets everywhere. Dean Kamen once gave me & two others a tour of his home. One of his (many) points of pride was the in living space workshops, plural, because you need negative pressure ventilation on the sanders and grinders to keep the dust away from the clean cutters, lathes, drills etc.
🌻🌻 [google.com]