Author Topic: A random thread for small computing things that don't really warrant a thread of their own  (Read 296532 times)

Phil W

You'll find (if you ever have anything to do with them) that many Supermarket petrol stations still have the pumps connected to the store network over RS432 standard cable. RS432 is just like RS232 except it can work over much larger distances.  They then have serial to IP convertor boxes so the pumps and underground tanks can talk to the computers at the other end.   You can then query the amount of fuel in the tanks, alert any dangerous leaks, and of course set the prices.  Plus authorise the pump and all that pay at pump stuff.  Bet you didn't realise your credit card details are going over good old serial connections. Fast and reliable enough for the purpose though.

The cables are buried in concrete and replacing them would not be a cheap job and of course you'd lose sales whilst you closed the petrol stations and dug them up.  So the old cables remain and convertor boxes it is. 

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
It's going to take a long time for serial interfaces using RS422 and RS485 and the like to die in these sorts of industrial/embedded applications.  While Ethernet is now cheap and ubiquitous, it adds layers of complexity that embedded hardware often doesn't want to have to deal with, can muck up timing-sensitive communications, and potentially introduce security issues.  And nobody wants to have to re-wire things, so converter boxes it is.

See also: Floppy disks.

Of course serial is alive and well.

You are plugging your devices in via your USB ports, aren't you?

It is parallel that died out.
<i>Marmite slave</i>

TheLurker

  • Goes well with magnolia.
Of course serial is alive and well.

You are plugging your devices in via your USB ports, aren't you?
Yebbut, writing a noddy piece of code to talk to something hanging off an RS-232 (or 423 Beeb fans!) port could be done in an afternoon* and didn't need shed loads of arcane knowledge provided the language you were using provided even basic bit twiddling / direct port acccess functions (So MUMPS aka DSM-11 for PDP, pretty much any language on the Beeb that let you get at the OSBYTE calls and even dear old VB on a PC with a DLL / control written in a sensible language.  USB on the other hand... well I've looked at it a couple or three times and walked away each time.  Not got that much life left to waste.

*Providing the manufacturer provided  the correct info. regarding whether 2 & 3 were crossed (null modem) or not.  The number of times they'd get that wrong.  Debugging technique ... nothing on the read buffer?  Re-solder wires 2 & 3 arse about and try again.
Τα πιο όμορφα ταξίδια γίνονται με τις δικές μας δυνάμεις - Φίλοι του Ποδήλατου

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Indeed.   Fortunately, there are chips that will USBify a RS232-style serial interface (and indeed many microcontrollers have this functionality built in).  So we can keep using noddy serial code over USB, at least until FTDI decide to throw their toys out of the pram and have their Windows drivers deliberately brick counterfeit chips again.

RS232 serial is going to go the way of the *nix tty: Alive and well, but rarely a piece of physical hardware.

tty  is also alive and kicking, down in the grotty valley of IoT, it is what is expected.

I2S, GPIO, etc; I think you'd find your old serial poking skills aren't as redundant as you are assuming.
<i>Marmite slave</i>

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
My IBM Model M is 27 today!  I will have to be very solicitous of its well-being for the next twelvemonth as I don't want it going the way of Messrs Jones, Hendrix, Joplin, Morrison, Cobain, Winehouse ect. ect.



External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

TheLurker

  • Goes well with magnolia.
My IBM Model M is 27 today!  I will have to be very solicitous of its well-being for the next twelvemonth as I don't want it going the way of Messrs Jones, Hendrix, Joplin, Morrison, Cobain, Winehouse ect. ect.
Bloody hell! "_Manufactured_ in United Kingdom."  There's a phrase you don't see very much these days.

Given we've stopped making stuff and the way things are going there may not be a United Kingdom of {sing along if you know the words} much longer I'd wrap it in cotton wool and only use it on high days and holidays>
Τα πιο όμορφα ταξίδια γίνονται με τις δικές μας δυνάμεις - Φίλοι του Ποδήλατου

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
No point wrapping a Model M in cotton wool.  Those are what the cockroaches are going to be spodding with after Mr Trump has a nice game of Global Thermonuclear War.

Zipperhead

  • The cyclist formerly known as Big Helga
My computer crashed today, well it would be more accurate to say that my computer made a crash today when it fell over. The monitors stopped updating and it didn't respond to the power button.

So I pulled the power cord out, and took the graphics card out, blew the dust out and put it back in. No apparent damage.

As you were.
Won't somebody think of the hamsters!

woollypigs

  • Mr Peli
    • woollypigs
How does one get hold of a version Mickey$oft Windows? I have ever only got it "free" with a computer, which then had a CD for recovery/reinstall.

The latest version of Win (and laptops) I've played with, the OS was/is on a recovery drive and no disk.

Yes, I played around with naughty versions of Windows back in the day. They got harder and harder to get hold of - product key, OS and what ever cracking tool was a pain the backside to get to play ball - to be worth playing with again.

I've looked online and is confused, there is no way I believe that you can get a legitimate version for under  20 earth credits. And I understand that is just the product key, you still need the OS - but from where and how?

I'm going to use it within VirtualBox on Debian or what ever flavour of Linux I'm playing with at the time.
Current mood: AARRRGGGGHHHHH !!! #bollockstobrexit

And I understand that is just the product key, you still need the OS - but from where and how?

Er, from Microsoft? Last time I had a Windows product key I found instructions for downloading it from MS themselves, stuck it on a disc, and installed it on the two machines I had keys for. No problem at all either finding it or doing it.


woollypigs

  • Mr Peli
    • woollypigs
Well I build my first PC in 20+ years today. Feck me what a change to my dying laptop. The last two or so years I have become used to:

Hit power (the last few months I had to do that a few times and if it didn't boot right I had to unplug it to then press power again)
waaaaait
login
waaaaaaaaait
click chrome
waaaaaaaaaaaaait
type the url in I wanted to visit
waaaaait
if I wanted to visit another url I had to wait before I could enter the url and then
waaaaaaait while I watched my CPU freak out and cook
then if I was lucky I could type a message on farcebook or gmail after about five min.

And god forbid if I wanted to play a youtube video too, that was simply a no go area or do other crazy things like opening gimp or file manager.

Today I installed debian (later MX Linux based on Debian) booted up, logged in, fired up chrome and wrote an email in less time than it took to boot up my laptop.

Boy - USB3, SSD, 2 cores 3.5Ghz, 16Mb 2100Mhz and what not - it is fast ... just opened six 3Mb+ images in Gimp and less than a minute later I was laughing in shock and surprise, oh yes I was also ready to edit too.

Oh and I flashed my first every BIOS, oooo look at me :)
Current mood: AARRRGGGGHHHHH !!! #bollockstobrexit

Dibdib

  • Fat'n'slow
I've been sporadically backing up my DVDs for a few weeks (only done a handful to be fair) and, now I have a working Bluray drive, I've started on those too.

My poor little iMac can't cope. The DVDs it can encode at a reasonable pace, but throwing a bluray MKV at it has ground it to a halt. 4fps.

Looks like I'll have to sort a tactical deployment of The Beefy Core i7 Windows Box for this...

woollypigs

  • Mr Peli
    • woollypigs
Google cast how does it work? My phone keeps showing the option to cast whatever I'm doing on YouTube and chrome. But I don't own a Google Cast item, so it must be a neighbour.

So if I cast to the item, would it just start to play there. Or do they have to ok it and would they get a preview?

Wonder what to cast to it - horror, Daily Fail or ...
Current mood: AARRRGGGGHHHHH !!! #bollockstobrexit

No, usually the receiving device has to be set to receive data from cast then you can 'cast' from your phone, tablet whatever. So it is probably a neighbour with a smart TV setting their TV to receive chromecast. I use mine to play movies from my phone on our TV sometimes. It works pretty well.
<i>Marmite slave</i>

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
No, usually the receiving device has to be set to receive data from cast then you can 'cast' from your phone, tablet whatever. So it is probably a neighbour with a smart TV setting their TV to receive chromecast.

Hang on, how would it be aware of a TV/Chromecast on a separate LAN?


I've only used it at a TV-enthusiast friend's house, where it's actually really cool for anyone in the room to be able to illustrate what they're talking about by displaying a video or webpage on the big screen.

Dibdib

  • Fat'n'slow
I can't speak for Chromecast, but my Apple TV only works when my phone/ipad is on the same network as the Apple TV.

Vince

  • Can't climb; won't climb
Is a neighbour stealing your wifi with their smart TV?
216km from Marsh Gibbon

Dibdib

  • Fat'n'slow
Do any target devices actually appear when you press the cast button? Or (as with Apple TV) it just gives an empty list?

I've just tested it with iPlayer on my iPhone - despite being in the office with no WiFi I still get an AirPlay button, but pressing it only gives the option to play on my iPhone (at home I can choose from iPhone or Apple TV).

woollypigs

  • Mr Peli
    • woollypigs
I have no clue. The only item in the house that might have Google/Chrome Cast does not react when I try to connect from my phone. I do get asked if I'm ok with my microphone to be used to ID/link them. This then fails and then gets asked for a PIN. No idea which kind or what the other Cast is, as I'm not told, like TV, monitor or phone etc.

I'm sure it is only when I'm only in some parts of the house. Though have not done a full test so can't say/remember if other phone or laptop (winOS with Chrome Browser) is near or on. The items on the connected items to the router is our own (unless you can hide that).
Current mood: AARRRGGGGHHHHH !!! #bollockstobrexit

rr

Chromecast is direct to the TV, I can cast to the screen in our VC room at work despite only having a cellular internet connection, or in another case no connection at all.
You have to set the TV to connect wirelessly and then the cast button on the phone. Also works with our laptop and Chromebook.
Dead good for showing photos and YouTube, iPlayer etc.
My phone also runs the TV remote app whenever the TV is turned on.
Initial pairing via a pin is needed

The mouse from my 2015 iMac has developed an annoying amount of slop and rattle, left to right / east to west between the acrylic upper part and the metal base.
It grates. Well, not so much grates as has an additional 'half-click' where you could really do without one.
During the last couple of weeks as this feature has made itself more prominent, my irritation has increased bigly.
I appreciate that it is a bit stone-in-the-shoe syndrome but, it is still in warranty. Just.
Today saw me return to Peter Jones and explain the issue to their after-sales bod.
He relieved me of my mouse, in order to consult a colleague.
Returning a few minutes later he showed me PJ's demo mouse saying 'This is our mouse. It is rattling and slopping just like your's'.
And indeed it was.
I resisted the temptation to point out to him that their mouse was as f*cked as mine, and they should return it to Apple for a replacement.
Instead, from my bag, I pulled out the mouse from my 2012 iMac and demonstrated to him how rock-solid it was, despite of an additional three years of regular use. I asked that my defective 2015 mouse be replaced with a new one under warranty, and he duly complied, pausing to ask whether I was entirely happy with the replacement mouse.

It was only later that the thought occurred to me that the 2012 magic mouse is not exactly the same as the 2015 magic mouse.
2015 is AFAIK magic mouse 2 or something.
So this exercise has shown that Apple's QC/Production quality in 2015, isn't quite the same as it was in 2012. Maybe.
Anyway, I haz a new mouse.

ETA: And I had a bowl of soup and some bread in Peter Jones' 6th floor restaurant which has views over London rooftops which can be filed under 'Mary Poppins'  :thumbsup:


 

Jaded

  • The Codfather
  • Formerly known as Jaded
Magic Mouse 2 is better. It has its own batteries and a better touch surface.
It is simpler than it looks.

Agreed. Mouse 2 has better features.
I'm questioning the quality of the build. I'll see how I get on with the replacement one.