RS232 the same as serial port?

[LakeyDaKidd]

Does anybody know if a RS232 port is the same as a serial port?

 

[maleo1]

Well, I think so. Just do some google image search on "Serial port" and see if that's you mean.

 

[Tekkaraiden]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RS-232

 

[kimsland]

RS-232 although stated by wikipedia above as a standard Serial port, is in actual fact a 25Pin older parallel (or old printer) connector

Whereas the old 9 Pin Serial Ports (made especially for the old serial mouse) is also called RS-232

Here's a pic:


Click to Maximize

When people say RS-232, I immediately think DB-25 (Pin)
When people say Serial RS-232, I imediately think DB-9 (Pin)

So which one were you referring to ?

 

[sol1109]

A serial port can be many things 25 to 25, 25 to 9, or 9 to 9 with various options of male & female, DTE/DCE/Null.

The term SERIAL is actually a description of fact that data is transmitted and received over two dedicated wires one bit at a time in series as opposed to the parallel printer port that contains 8 data lines transmitting data in parallel.

The 25 pin standard was developed around early modems and many of the signal lines can be dropped thus simplifying the cable to 9 pins.

http://www.zytrax.com/tech/layer_1/cables/tech_rs232.htm
http://www.airborn.com.au/rs232.html

 

[kimsland]

Oh yeah it wasn't mouse, it was for modem. I had one of those once. (seeming that was all you could have at the time) Mind you the mouse was 9Pin Serial too