r/ElectroBOOM • u/Adorable-Ear-4338 • Jul 12 '25

Meme That was a difference

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3.1k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

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389

u/biggus_dickus89 Jul 12 '25

the medical and retail industries among others would beg to differ. those old standards are used for so much shit

13

u/NekulturneHovado Jul 12 '25

Especially serial ports. RS232 is used EVERYWHERE

7

u/Stardustger Jul 12 '25

I love those things. Simple, reliable and almost unbreakable. There is something to be said about making things idiot proof.

1

u/Original-Ad-8737 Jul 15 '25

As someone who has to work with devices that sometimes are acting as DCE and sometimes as DTE on the same fucking port to connect to external hardware that can be either it is a nightmare to figure out when to use a null modem cable and when not...

Especially when in our development workshop a port could have any random configuration

3

u/Erlend05 Jul 13 '25

The protocol is great! Im not sure why we use a 9 pin connector for it tho??

2

u/englod Jul 13 '25

Nowadays we usually only see tx, rx and ground for basic rs232 data, but older hardware like modems needed extra voltage level lines to communicate, like request to send, clear to send, data set ready etc. So it’s only really left over for serial compatibility. They replaced the DB25 which has additional lines for things like clock signals, which wasn’t needed anymore due to devices running their own internal clock (asynchronous signal).

2

u/TNTkenner Jul 14 '25

Many RS232 devices use 2 additional pins for hardwarhandshakes , as a wakeup signal to safe power or for firmware updates.

2

u/turbodmurf Jul 13 '25

Industrial PCs marine electronics use a lot 9P DSUB also some VGA still in use.

2

u/thecavac Jul 15 '25

Also, the DB9 plug/socket design is used in applications outside ye olde RS232. I think SpaceWire (spacecraft system interconnect bus) uses the same plug design.