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Thank heaven for RS232 and documented ASCII command sets. Having to replace working equipment because the software that you paid for can't be transferred to a

Thank heaven for RS232 and documented ASCII command sets. Having to replace working equipment because the software that you paid for can't be transferred to a new computer is a nightmare Often, the old equipment works just fine because the laws of physics haven't changed. But equally often, by the time it's that old, it's being used for a tiny subset of its original, perhaps for exactly one repetitive procedure. In those cases, it's often easy to whip up a little Python program that talks to the RS232 port via a USB-RS232 converter. Will the Python program last any longer? Maybe not, but at least its source code is in text format.

j45 5y ago
Tibbo makes some neat products to do rs232 over Ethernet
- iancmceachern 5y ago
  Was looking for something like this for a project, they are neat, thanks!
  - j45 5y ago
    Glad it was helpful. It can be super handy to be access the serial port on a piece of equipment that’s not next to you… through a local virtual com port.
simlan 5y ago
Yes. I always rejoice when i find a scan of an old manual somewhere and the last pages consist of that delightfull command list
anthk 5y ago
>Will the Python program last any longer? Maybe not, but at least its source code is in text format. TCL and Expect would be much better for that than Python.
hansor 5y ago
I my previous job we used "Moxa Serial to Ethernet Converter" [read-only in one way] to connect with almost 100 machines in various laboratories around the country to get spectography(and other "BIG OIL" stuff) data into my distributed SQLITE and MS-SQL databases back in HQ. Worked really well. One of the oldest machine was some 286 connected to some freaky gasoline density aparatus :) In many cases you can't simply upgrade software, as software for such machines does not support anything else - and you can't really reverse engineer drivers for 50 different machines in sane amount of time. Most of really expensive machines provide some kind of output over serial interfaces - it seems to be industry standard, but I forgot the name for it.
the_only_law 5y ago
Surprised a lot of this stuff is RS-232. I have a collection of old engineering/telecom test equipment I used for a project and while some of it did offer RS-232 connection, GPIB is probably a bit more common.
- analog31 5y ago
  Depends on the industry. Chemistry lab equipment like spectrometers more frequently used RS232. But someone does make an inexpensive USB-to-GPIB adapter that basically enumerates as a COM port, making programming pretty easy.

j45 5y ago

Tibbo makes some neat products to do rs232 over Ethernet

iancmceachern 5y ago
Was looking for something like this for a project, they are neat, thanks!
- j45 5y ago
  Glad it was helpful. It can be super handy to be access the serial port on a piece of equipment that’s not next to you… through a local virtual com port.

simlan 5y ago

Yes. I always rejoice when i find a scan of an old manual somewhere and the last pages consist of that delightfull command list

anthk 5y ago

>Will the Python program last any longer? Maybe not, but at least its source code is in text format. TCL and Expect would be much better for that than Python.

hansor 5y ago

I my previous job we used "Moxa Serial to Ethernet Converter" [read-only in one way] to connect with almost 100 machines in various laboratories around the country to get spectography(and other "BIG OIL" stuff) data into my distributed SQLITE and MS-SQL databases back in HQ. Worked really well. One of the oldest machine was some 286 connected to some freaky gasoline density aparatus :) In many cases you can't simply upgrade software, as software for such machines does not support anything else - and you can't really reverse engineer drivers for 50 different machines in sane amount of time. Most of really expensive machines provide some kind of output over serial interfaces - it seems to be industry standard, but I forgot the name for it.

the_only_law 5y ago

Surprised a lot of this stuff is RS-232. I have a collection of old engineering/telecom test equipment I used for a project and while some of it did offer RS-232 connection, GPIB is probably a bit more common.

analog31 5y ago
Depends on the industry. Chemistry lab equipment like spectrometers more frequently used RS232. But someone does make an inexpensive USB-to-GPIB adapter that basically enumerates as a COM port, making programming pretty easy.