On Sun, 15 Feb 2015 20:00:28 +0000, Andrew Mawson wrote:

"John Rumm" wrote in message
o.uk...

I think that you are right John - no intelligence as such just power
generation and buffering. I used to use one and others of a similar
ilk back in the 70's and early 80's but only as a temporary patch
panel and monitor to prove handshaking and making up a final cable to
the same spec. I think that the Interfaker was the one others tried to
copy at a lower price as they were stupidly expensive even then.

Indeed... I still have a couple of RS232 boxes - one with lights,
another with switches and patch wires. Have not used them for years
though.

I think the last time I used them was for working out the (very
unorthodox)
handshaking used by a HP7475 plotter so I could make a lead that would
drive it.



I'm still using RS232 to talk to three CNC machines I play with in my
home workshop. (Beaver Partsmaster CNC mill, Traub 5 axis CNC lathe, and
a Fanuc Tapemaster CNC Wirec EDM machine) I even have one with paper
tape input (the Fanuc), and also have a paper tape reader / reperforator
which itself has an RS232 interface.

Old technology rules

I have three UPS units that are monitored/controlled via RS232. Not to
mention three VAXes and a PDP-11 or three.

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