Re: Do you still use "RS232" or something else?

On 01/14/11 23:13, Oliver Betz wrote:
Do you still use EIA-232? Customers complaining?

Don't know, but I can tell you what I wished for, even 25 years
ago when I had almost daily fights with RS-232 cabling.

A symmetrical standard based on a hermaphrodite 8-wire connector.

My-ground, I'm-ready, my-data, my-power/my-inverted-data (if
differential), and the corresponding 4 inputs.

Put them all in a symmetric 8 conductor socket that's half
male, half female, so if you can plug it in, and have the
right data-rate, it'll work. In differential mode, it would
be good for half-mile runs at decent data rates on CAT-5.

Center the data levels at 2.5V, with swings to 0 and 5V so you
don't need elevated supplies from a 5V system, and you can
easily transfer useful power, perhaps 100mA, for low-power
peripherals, even when using differential transmission.

I don't get why hermaphrodite connectors never took off, it
just seems like a no-brainer. They might be a little harder
to make, but in volume would surely be cheaper than DE-25s.

Clifford Heath.
.