5 ms·

What uses RS-232 these days? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/RS-232 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/RS-232

by WalterGR 5y ago

jdhawk 5y ago
Headless Equipment with a console.
rbanffy 5y ago
It’s usually the interface of last resort, when all others were misconfigured into silence.
prova_modena 5y ago
Industrial equipment like CNC machines.
ktm5j 5y ago
Rackmount networking hardware (routers, switches), disk arrays/storage appliances, etc. I work with a lot of equipment that does. It's usually a rj-45 connector on the hardware, but you just use a cable that has rs-232 on one end and rj-45 on the other. The fact that this has an actual rs-232 port makes it really tempting for me to buy one!
- comex 5y ago
  But if you're already using a cable that adapts to a different connector, why not just use a USB to RJ-45 serial cable?
tenebrisalietum 5y ago
My VT-220.
- GekkePrutser 5y ago
  And my VT-520! <3
com2kid 5y ago
Plenty of embedded still does.
foxfluff 5y ago
It's the first thing that works, JTAG or other proprietary debug ports aside. It's the thing that you start with in order to get everything else to work, and it's the thing that works when everything else fails. That's why my desk is full of RS232 dongles and cables. The first thing I need to do when I get a new board is to figure out where the console is.
- stefan_ 5y ago
  Except few of those use actual RS232 voltage levels, which would just be an useless expense.
  - foxfluff 5y ago
    Well our boards do support the full swing. Except for the latest prototype which I got a few weeks ago, that one talks 3V3 TTL levels.
    - exikyut 5y ago
      Out of curiosity, what kinds of boards?
      - foxfluff 5y ago
        Multi-purpose boards ranging from ~Nano-ITX to Flex-ATX in size. Typical features include dual power inputs, a bunch of ethernet ports, rs232 & rs485 ports, isolated gpios, analog inputs, wireless modem (3g/lte/5g), and more depending on the board. These are used for things such as hooking up on prem sensors and alarm systems, providing redundant internet / vpn connectivity for devices, remote management of devices that either don't have direct internet support at all or aren't actually secure enough to be exposed (or just can't allocate a public IP address and thus need a tunnel/vpn for management), etcetra.
        exikyut 5y ago
        ooooh. Not what I was expecting. I somehow associated "find console" and "board bringup" with notions of signal analysis and 23 SMA connectors and "BUG: unable to handle kernel paging request" and "ARGH it was a hairline solder bridge this entire time". Need to despecialize my definitions a bit. But that's very cool. How does the redundant connectivity stuff work? Just basic failover, or WAN bonding? (I'm also vaguely aware that some setups sometimes go through carriers that will provision a custom APN packaged with an upstream VPN so the device is physically isolated from the public internet, which can both increase security and lower cost from port scans etc.) (Also, in a prior comment (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29032123 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29032123) you mentioned how Allwinner offer an SIP with DDR3 - interesting. I've been idly curious for a while about where the FC100s-based "my business card runs Linux" would be at a couple years on, and what a minimal working example would look like. Definitely a bit of a tangent though.)
zwieback 5y ago
Rarely anything new but I regularly need it for old manufacturing line equipment that just keeps running. 20 years is nothing for some of our assembly lines.
luma 5y ago
Basically all modern storage arrays and network devices rely on serial connections for first time setup. There are some advantages to this approach for the datacenter engineer if you aren't trying to do it at scale (where you'd likely be leveraging PXE). Once you have the speed and parity sorted out (often a pain), it's easy to copy/paste into a serial terminal which can make stuffing large configs into a new device relatively painless. Alternately, one can sometimes navigate through a simple menu system to configure IP addressing to complete initial config through some other means (SSH/HTTPS/etc). Anyone supporting network gear in a datacenter has a baby blue Cisco serial cable somewhere in their bag.
- IOT_Apprentice 5y ago
  It would be great then if Monoprice built those serial port cables for use on iPads via either Lightning AND usb-c 4.
  - int_19h 5y ago
    Isn't it a different physical connector between Lightning and USB-C? And there cetainly are Lightning-to-serial cables out there: https://redpark.com/products/serial-adapters/ https://redpark.com/products/serial-adapters/
snvzz 5y ago
Pretty much everything. But particularly, servers, network equipment, industrial equipment.
bobsmooth 5y ago
Military equipment.

What uses RS-232 these days? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/RS-232 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/RS-232

jdhawk 5y ago

Headless Equipment with a console.

rbanffy 5y ago

It’s usually the interface of last resort, when all others were misconfigured into silence.

prova_modena 5y ago

Industrial equipment like CNC machines.

ktm5j 5y ago

Rackmount networking hardware (routers, switches), disk arrays/storage appliances, etc. I work with a lot of equipment that does. It's usually a rj-45 connector on the hardware, but you just use a cable that has rs-232 on one end and rj-45 on the other. The fact that this has an actual rs-232 port makes it really tempting for me to buy one!

comex 5y ago
But if you're already using a cable that adapts to a different connector, why not just use a USB to RJ-45 serial cable?

tenebrisalietum 5y ago

My VT-220.

GekkePrutser 5y ago
And my VT-520! <3

com2kid 5y ago

Plenty of embedded still does.

foxfluff 5y ago

It's the first thing that works, JTAG or other proprietary debug ports aside. It's the thing that you start with in order to get everything else to work, and it's the thing that works when everything else fails. That's why my desk is full of RS232 dongles and cables. The first thing I need to do when I get a new board is to figure out where the console is.

stefan_ 5y ago
Except few of those use actual RS232 voltage levels, which would just be an useless expense.
- foxfluff 5y ago
  Well our boards do support the full swing. Except for the latest prototype which I got a few weeks ago, that one talks 3V3 TTL levels.
  - exikyut 5y ago
    Out of curiosity, what kinds of boards?
    - foxfluff 5y ago
      Multi-purpose boards ranging from ~Nano-ITX to Flex-ATX in size. Typical features include dual power inputs, a bunch of ethernet ports, rs232 & rs485 ports, isolated gpios, analog inputs, wireless modem (3g/lte/5g), and more depending on the board. These are used for things such as hooking up on prem sensors and alarm systems, providing redundant internet / vpn connectivity for devices, remote management of devices that either don't have direct internet support at all or aren't actually secure enough to be exposed (or just can't allocate a public IP address and thus need a tunnel/vpn for management), etcetra.
      - exikyut 5y ago
        ooooh. Not what I was expecting. I somehow associated "find console" and "board bringup" with notions of signal analysis and 23 SMA connectors and "BUG: unable to handle kernel paging request" and "ARGH it was a hairline solder bridge this entire time". Need to despecialize my definitions a bit. But that's very cool. How does the redundant connectivity stuff work? Just basic failover, or WAN bonding? (I'm also vaguely aware that some setups sometimes go through carriers that will provision a custom APN packaged with an upstream VPN so the device is physically isolated from the public internet, which can both increase security and lower cost from port scans etc.) (Also, in a prior comment (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29032123 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29032123) you mentioned how Allwinner offer an SIP with DDR3 - interesting. I've been idly curious for a while about where the FC100s-based "my business card runs Linux" would be at a couple years on, and what a minimal working example would look like. Definitely a bit of a tangent though.)

zwieback 5y ago

Rarely anything new but I regularly need it for old manufacturing line equipment that just keeps running. 20 years is nothing for some of our assembly lines.

luma 5y ago

Basically all modern storage arrays and network devices rely on serial connections for first time setup. There are some advantages to this approach for the datacenter engineer if you aren't trying to do it at scale (where you'd likely be leveraging PXE). Once you have the speed and parity sorted out (often a pain), it's easy to copy/paste into a serial terminal which can make stuffing large configs into a new device relatively painless. Alternately, one can sometimes navigate through a simple menu system to configure IP addressing to complete initial config through some other means (SSH/HTTPS/etc). Anyone supporting network gear in a datacenter has a baby blue Cisco serial cable somewhere in their bag.

IOT_Apprentice 5y ago
It would be great then if Monoprice built those serial port cables for use on iPads via either Lightning AND usb-c 4.
- int_19h 5y ago
  Isn't it a different physical connector between Lightning and USB-C? And there cetainly are Lightning-to-serial cables out there: https://redpark.com/products/serial-adapters/ https://redpark.com/products/serial-adapters/

snvzz 5y ago

Pretty much everything. But particularly, servers, network equipment, industrial equipment.

bobsmooth 5y ago

Military equipment.