Serial port!

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4254
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Apr 14, 2009 7:34 pm

Serial port!

Post by 4254 »

I would like to have serial console. rs232 is ok, rs485 would be just perfect.

yogev_ezra
Posts: 539
Joined: Sun Mar 22, 2009 2:49 pm

Re: Serial port!

Post by yogev_ezra »

Can you give an example where it's needed?
I always thought that serial port is already a thing of the past...

The customers that still order computers with serial ports from me, usually don't need more than 500MHz processing power in the CPU, so I just sell them Fit-PC Slim (has the Serial port), or another (competing) product also based on 500MHz AMD Geode CPU.

EDIT: I meant to say that for devices that require serial port, usually 500MHz CPU is more than enough, since they are usually very old devices that were created when 1.6GHz did not even exist. And newer devices usually have USB port.

fluffycloud
Posts: 55
Joined: Tue Mar 24, 2009 5:32 pm

Re: Serial port!

Post by fluffycloud »

I think he's talking about wanting a serial port to plug the thing into a console server or some such device where you could control the machine via it's serial console instead of the keyboard and video.

There's some other perfectly good hardware that still uses old serial ports, like UPS or networking gear, or to a chip programmer, or a robotics controller. There are plenty of devices that still use a serial port, just not very common in retail.

All the same, I'm glad to see them go. If you really need one, go grab a USB serial port, that's what they're there for.

-Fluffy

yogev_ezra
Posts: 539
Joined: Sun Mar 22, 2009 2:49 pm

Re: Serial port!

Post by yogev_ezra »

The biggest problem with DB-9 serial ports in my opinion, is that they are very big and very slow. So if you can replace them with USB port, it's a good thing. Worst case you can use a USB-to-Serial adapter, like you suggested.

4254
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Apr 14, 2009 7:34 pm

Re: Serial port!

Post by 4254 »

hmmm quite strange. i thought that i had left the message on a "wish list" board. quite surprized by finding it here!
fluffycloud wrote:I think he's talking about wanting a serial port to plug the thing into a console server or some such device where you could control the machine via it's serial console instead of the keyboard and video.
correct. that's also because fit-pc2 has digital video output only. and actually i don't need video output almost at all. serial console to watch linux kernel boot process in case if something goes wrong, and network connection for all other I/O is enough for me.
yogev_ezra wrote:The customers that still order computers with serial ports from me, usually don't need more than 500MHz processing power in the CPU, so I just sell them Fit-PC Slim (has the Serial port), or another (competing) product also based on 500MHz AMD Geode CPU.
maybe you're right. but still, it would be really nice to have a serial port in fit-pc2.

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