video switcher control via catalyst

[samsc]

Hey Johnny,

Serial is finicky. If you can get it working reliably in the shop, you're fine. Juts don't expect to be able to change much on show site. You'll end up shooting yourself in the foot if you try to change serial rates, sizes, etc. on show days.

you have to get it working on a site- with the cables you have-
rs232 is NOT electrically robust and electrically isolated - its suceptible to interference and grounding problems.
designed for small cable run in controlled environments.

almost always incorrect cables and incorrect pinouts -

you never change data rates.

[SourceChild]

its not mac vs pc.

Theoretically, it's actually easier to use serial on a PC because most PCs have serial ports already built in. This is a legacy feature of many PC boards.

Macs require USB to serial adaptors. When High End was shipping Catalyst, they included a few of these serial devices in each package. They worked okay but there are other choices out there as well.

...and yes, Catalyst runs serial very well.

[SourceChild]

you have to get it working on a site- with the cables you have-
rs232 is NOT electrically robust and electrically isolated - its suceptible to interference and grounding problems.
designed for small cable run in controlled environments.

almost always incorrect cables and incorrect pinouts -

you never change data rates.

I've modified my initial posts to be more informative and address these statements.

[samsc]

Theoretically, it's actually easier to use serial on a PC because most PCs have serial ports already built in. This is a legacy feature of many PC boards.

Macs require USB to serial adaptors. When High End was shipping Catalyst, they included a few of these serial devices in each package. They worked okay but there are other choices out there as well.

...and yes, Catalyst runs serial very well.

some of the hideous cable complexity is here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rs232c#...TE_relative.29

the connector and pinout problem does not go away magically with pc's

its not the interfaces that go wrong - its the cables and pinouts.

there is no standardised male/female connector relationship- rs232 talks about DTE and DCE equipment which doesnt work with modern computers.

there are a whole bunch of hardware handshaking pins that may or may not need to be connected - or pulled up or pulled down - depending on the device itself.

every single device i had to use in the past used a different pinout or pinout combination.
you are lucky if your device just uses the receive and transmit pins -
but the receive and transmit pins can be wired with 2 different conventions depending on the device.

[samsc]

Theoretically, it's actually easier to use serial on a PC because most PCs have serial ports already built in. This is a legacy feature of many PC boards.

...its not the port that goes wrong...