THIS MONTH:
Universal
Serial
Bust
afew months ago, we were
ranting about the inconvenience
regarding the pervasiveness of
RS-232 serial connections on robotics
kits. Who has a laptop with a serial
connection, anyway? Just about every
robotics kit that we’ve reviewed for
SERVO uses a serial connection for
programming, so we’ve been forced
to invest in a serial-to-USB adapter.
It wasn’t a particularly painful
investment, but it was the principle of
the thing that got us riled up. Why
the fascination with serial cables? Is it
a cost issue? These companies must
realize that by persisting with serial
connections they are effectively
forcing the customer to buy an
adapter; this additional cost must
factor into purchasing decisions. Is
there some mysterious capability of
the RS-232 serial connection that
somehow makes it much more
suitable for robotics kits?
We were determined to get to
the bottom of this mystery while
putting our money where our mouth
is — we planned to investigate the
reasons for the persistence of the
serial connections while switching one
of our own kits from a serial-to-USB
connection.
Interesting Interview
‘Cerpts
To better understand our nemesis
— the serial connection — we turned
to Professor Bill Hodgkiss at the
University of California, San Diego.
Evan was taking the Sensor Networks
class with Professor Hodgkiss, and
FIGURE
3. THE POB BOT WANTS TO SHOW
YOU ITS SERIAL CONNECTION
.
FIGURE
2. THE VIPER SPORTS A
SERIAL INTERFACE, TOO.
FIGURE
1.ASURO AND ITS
SERIAL CONNECTION
.
62 SERVO 07.2009
