Who still uses serial ports? And what for?

1005 bytes/sec, Imagine installing GTA V with that speed...but then again, a CNC Mill isn't playing GTA V I hope.

whenever I need serial (all the time on projects) I just us an ftdi breakout.

Universal Serial Bus

The fact that it's a serial bus does not imply that it uses a similar signal or protocol. By that logic, Serial Attached SCSI or Serial ATA could work with RS232. Now, you can get adapters for different buses like ISA, PCI, PCIe and USB, but you can't just plug one straight into the other without some hardware and software layers to deal with it.

You got my point?

I use RS232 to convert it to MODBUS and HART for programming industrial electronics.

Also use it for programming HVAC systems.

Console Port on Switches mostly myself, either Cisco ones or the rebranded 3COM Switches from HP which all have Console Ports (and terrible firmware) which is the only way to factory reset them among other things.

I tend to avoid them and anything that has one where I can as often any use for the console port is not very well documented these days... or uses a custom pinout. Seen that a few times with some equipment to try and force you to buy their proprietary not included serial cables... ugh.

Still use serial for cisco terminal access server, switches, routers, servers, and firewalls, and even some old UPS's.

I use serial to connect to lots of Avaya Telephony equipment. Also the Megasquirt ECU in one of my cars uses serial.

I keep an old Toughbook around with a 9 pin RS232 serial port, cause you never know when you will need serial. (I always have terrible luck with USB adapters)

So here are some pictures of this device as mentioned in my earlier post.

This is called the down-loader(seriously), this has the serial port on the back.


This is the device that tests creatinine levels of blood. On the front is a barcode reader and a IR sensor. Called an I-Stat


Front of the "Downloader"

So basically a zip file is downloaded to a computer with a serial port. The downloader is attached to the computer, an .exe is extracted then ran. A prompt appears saying attach I-Stat meaning line up the IR sensors. Then the update gets pushed to I-Stat at blistering speed.(Not quite sure what IR transfers at, but it is quite slow)

Now there is nothing unique about the technologies used to push the update, but it was interesting using Ethernet, serial and IR to push a 500kb update.

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Been using serial often to configure PDU's in our datacenter. Pretty much the only way to do it if you do not use DHCP.

I use serial quite often in A/V control systems. It's surprising how often you come across equipment that uses it for initial set up or sometimes even control.

2 year necro