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Groups > comp.arch.embedded > #31541 > unrolled thread

Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port

Started byRick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com>
First post2023-01-17 07:24 -0800
Last post2023-03-29 00:44 -0700
Articles 20 on this page of 155 — 18 participants

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Contents

  Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-01-17 07:24 -0800
    Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2023-01-17 11:31 -0800
      Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-01-17 12:19 -0800
        Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2023-01-17 13:07 -0800
          Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-01-17 13:29 -0800
            Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2023-01-17 14:04 -0800
              Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-01-17 14:47 -0800
                Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2023-01-17 15:32 -0800
                  Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-01-17 15:44 -0800
                    Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2023-01-17 16:04 -0800
                      Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-01-17 17:32 -0800
                        Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2023-01-17 20:02 -0800
                          Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-01-17 20:24 -0800
                            Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2023-01-17 20:56 -0800
                              Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-01-17 22:30 -0800
                                Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2023-01-18 00:37 -0800
                                  Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-01-18 04:43 -0800
                                    Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2023-01-18 14:19 -0800
                                      Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-01-18 23:15 -0800
                                        Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2023-01-19 12:21 -0800
                Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Andrew Smallshaw <andrews@sdf.org> - 2023-01-18 12:15 +0000
                  Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-01-18 04:55 -0800
                    Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Andrew Smallshaw <andrews@sdf.org> - 2023-01-18 13:22 +0000
                      Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Andrew Smallshaw <andrews@sdf.org> - 2023-01-18 13:28 +0000
                      Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-01-18 06:20 -0800
        Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2023-01-18 10:04 +0100
    Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> - 2023-01-18 16:18 +0000
      Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2023-01-18 14:10 -0800
        Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> - 2023-01-19 10:29 +0000
          Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Don Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> - 2023-01-19 05:41 -0700
            Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-01-19 10:00 -0800
              Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2023-01-19 12:42 -0800
                Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-01-19 14:10 -0800
                  Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2023-01-19 16:16 -0800
          Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2023-01-19 16:07 +0000
            Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-01-19 10:13 -0800
            Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Don Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> - 2023-01-19 14:51 -0700
          Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-01-19 10:06 -0800
            Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> - 2023-01-20 13:03 +0000
              Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-01-20 06:28 -0800
              Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2023-01-20 19:14 -0800
                Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Don Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> - 2023-01-20 20:41 -0700
                  Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Don Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> - 2023-01-21 05:05 -0700
                Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> - 2023-01-21 10:53 +0000
            Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Herbert Kleebauer <klee@unibwm.de> - 2023-01-20 19:17 +0100
              Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-01-20 12:37 -0800
                Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Dimiter_Popoff <dp@tgi-sci.com> - 2023-01-20 23:02 +0200
                  Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-01-20 14:08 -0800
                    Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Dimiter_Popoff <dp@tgi-sci.com> - 2023-01-21 01:38 +0200
                    Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port antispam@math.uni.wroc.pl - 2023-01-21 01:58 +0000
                      Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-01-20 18:44 -0800
                        Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port antispam@math.uni.wroc.pl - 2023-01-21 20:02 +0000
                          Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-01-22 17:12 -0800
                            Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-02-03 09:22 -0800
                              Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-02-03 10:04 -0800
                                Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Dimiter_Popoff <dp@tgi-sci.com> - 2023-03-26 22:24 +0300
                                  Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Don Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> - 2023-03-27 02:27 -0700
    Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port pozz <pozzugno@gmail.com> - 2023-01-20 08:54 +0100
      Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-01-20 01:03 -0800
    Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-03-22 12:18 -0700
      Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2023-03-22 20:35 -0700
        Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-03-22 23:26 -0700
          Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-03-22 23:28 -0700
            Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> - 2023-03-23 10:06 +0000
              Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-03-24 00:59 -0700
            Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2023-03-23 09:00 -0700
              Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-03-24 01:03 -0700
          Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2023-03-23 08:54 -0700
            Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-03-24 01:02 -0700
              Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2023-03-24 01:43 -0700
              Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Hans-Bernhard Bröker <HBBroeker@t-online.de> - 2023-03-24 12:44 +0100
                Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> - 2023-03-24 14:20 +0000
                  Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-03-24 08:08 -0700
                    Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> - 2023-03-24 16:23 +0000
                    Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2023-03-24 13:42 -0700
                      Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-03-24 14:31 -0700
                        Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2023-03-24 18:19 -0700
                          Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2023-03-24 18:22 -0700
                          Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-03-24 18:34 -0700
                            Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2023-03-24 19:43 -0700
                              Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-03-24 20:01 -0700
                                Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2023-03-24 21:18 -0700
                    Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Don Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> - 2023-03-24 15:35 -0700
                      Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-03-24 18:21 -0700
                        Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Don Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> - 2023-03-24 19:21 -0700
                        Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port George Neuner <gneuner2@comcast.net> - 2023-03-25 21:42 -0400
                          Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-03-25 19:26 -0700
                            Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Jim Jackson <jj@franjam.org.uk> - 2023-03-26 18:27 +0000
                              Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Don Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> - 2023-03-26 13:23 -0700
                                Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Don Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> - 2023-03-26 13:32 -0700
                                  Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Don Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> - 2023-03-26 13:52 -0700
                                    Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-03-26 19:30 -0700
                                      Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Don Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> - 2023-03-26 20:31 -0700
                                        Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-03-27 07:04 -0700
                                          Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Don Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> - 2023-03-27 09:21 -0700
                                            Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-03-27 09:56 -0700
                                              Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Don Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> - 2023-03-27 13:08 -0700
                                                Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Jim Jackson <jj@franjam.org.uk> - 2023-03-27 20:46 +0000
                                                  Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-03-27 15:07 -0700
                                                  Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Don Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> - 2023-03-27 15:07 -0700
                                                Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-03-27 14:50 -0700
                                                  Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Don Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> - 2023-03-27 15:07 -0700
                                                    Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-03-27 15:24 -0700
                                                      Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Don Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> - 2023-03-27 15:36 -0700
                                                        Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-03-27 15:37 -0700
                                                          Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Don Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> - 2023-03-27 15:42 -0700
                                      Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2023-03-27 11:03 +0200
                                        Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-03-27 07:11 -0700
                                          Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Dimiter_Popoff <dp@tgi-sci.com> - 2023-03-27 17:47 +0300
                                            Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-03-27 08:05 -0700
                                              Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Dimiter_Popoff <dp@tgi-sci.com> - 2023-03-27 19:09 +0300
                                          Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2023-03-27 17:38 +0200
                                Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-03-26 19:22 -0700
                              Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-03-26 19:11 -0700
                            Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Don Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> - 2023-03-26 13:37 -0700
                              Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-03-26 19:28 -0700
                                Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Don Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> - 2023-03-27 13:38 -0700
                                  Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-03-27 15:05 -0700
                                    Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Don Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> - 2023-03-27 15:08 -0700
                                      Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-03-27 15:25 -0700
                                        Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Don Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> - 2023-03-27 15:38 -0700
                          Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Don Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> - 2023-03-26 13:23 -0700
                            Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-03-26 19:25 -0700
                              Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Don Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> - 2023-03-26 20:31 -0700
                                Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-03-27 07:05 -0700
                                  Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Don Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> - 2023-03-27 09:18 -0700
                                    Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-03-27 10:09 -0700
                                      Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Don Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> - 2023-03-27 12:16 -0700
                                        Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-03-27 13:03 -0700
                                          Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Don Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> - 2023-03-27 13:17 -0700
                                            Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-03-27 15:05 -0700
                                              Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Don Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> - 2023-03-27 15:40 -0700
                                                Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Clifford Heath <no.spam@please.net> - 2023-03-28 10:36 +1100
                                                  Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-03-27 17:59 -0700
                                                    Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Clifford Heath <no.spam@please.net> - 2023-03-28 12:58 +1100
                                                      Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-03-27 20:41 -0700
                                                        Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Clifford Heath <no.spam@please.net> - 2023-03-28 15:21 +1100
                                                          Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-03-28 08:37 -0700
                                                            Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Jim Jackson <jj@franjam.org.uk> - 2023-03-28 20:00 +0000
                                                              Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-03-28 13:06 -0700
                                                            Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Clifford Heath <no.spam@please.net> - 2023-03-29 08:03 +1100
                                                  Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Don Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> - 2023-03-28 00:11 -0700
                                              Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port "b...@gmx.com" <bl1@gmx.com> - 2023-03-27 16:17 -0700
                                                Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-03-27 18:12 -0700
                  Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Hans-Bernhard Bröker <HBBroeker@t-online.de> - 2023-03-24 19:26 +0100
                Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-03-24 08:03 -0700
                  Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Hans-Bernhard Bröker <HBBroeker@t-online.de> - 2023-03-24 19:10 +0100
      Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Herbert Kleebauer <klee@unibwm.de> - 2023-03-24 17:16 +0100
        Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Herbert Kleebauer <klee@unibwm.de> - 2023-03-24 18:54 +0100
        Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-03-24 11:34 -0700
    Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-03-27 10:18 -0700
    Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Uwe Bonnes <bon@hertz.ikp.physik.tu-darmstadt.de> - 2023-03-28 20:53 +0000
      Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-03-28 16:12 -0700
        Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Niklas Holsti <niklas.holsti@tidorum.invalid> - 2023-03-29 09:06 +0300
          Re: Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2023-03-29 00:44 -0700

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#31594

FromPaul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid>
Date2023-01-20 19:14 -0800
Message-ID<877cxgsho8.fsf@nightsong.com>
In reply to#31585
Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> writes:
> What is the use case for a programmable RS232-to-RS232 product?  If
> you can think of a use case, maybe you can find somebody who makes
> such a thing.

The search is not for an RS232-to-RS232 product per se, but for a small
computer with two RS232 ports.  In the Z80 era, those used to be
plentiful.  Of course they were considered full fledged personal
computers, in large expensive boxes, given the technology of time.

The lament is that there doesn't seem to be anything like that being
made today with modern technology.  Just a small box with a programmable
microprocessor inside, and two RS232 ports.  All the available products
add a massive amount of additional complexity.  It does seem like an
opportunity.

Imagining making something like that for myself makes me feel dismayed.
Besides the MCU board and enclosure, you also need a bunch of mounting
screws, standoffs, connectors, an enclosure made of sheet metal, tools
to drill holes for the standoffs and make D-shaped cutouts for the DB9
connectors, burn-in testing for everything, yada yada yada.  All that
stuff would have to be ordered from someplace, maybe multiple places.

Whenever I try to make anything physical, I invariably discover partway
through that I need some 10 cent part that I didn't think of earlier, so
I have to order that and wait N days for its arrival, then repeat this
process several times.  This is why custom made anything costs so much.
It's not like programming where if I need some chunk of software, I can
download it and have it a minute later.

It doesn't seem like THAT outlandish a wish to hope that box described
instead exists as an off the shelf product from somewhere.  It is weird
that it is so hard to find.

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]


#31595

FromDon Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid>
Date2023-01-20 20:41 -0700
Message-ID<tqfmsk$2eg02$2@dont-email.me>
In reply to#31594
On 1/20/2023 8:14 PM, Paul Rubin wrote:
> Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> writes:
>> What is the use case for a programmable RS232-to-RS232 product?  If
>> you can think of a use case, maybe you can find somebody who makes
>> such a thing.
> 
> The search is not for an RS232-to-RS232 product per se, but for a small
> computer with two RS232 ports.  In the Z80 era, those used to be
> plentiful.  Of course they were considered full fledged personal
> computers, in large expensive boxes, given the technology of time.

A `7180 with some level-shifters would be a 3-chip solution "from the past".
But, you'd "program" it as a PROM, not some ASL.

> The lament is that there doesn't seem to be anything like that being
> made today with modern technology.  Just a small box with a programmable
> microprocessor inside, and two RS232 ports.  All the available products
> add a massive amount of additional complexity.  It does seem like an
> opportunity.
> 
> Imagining making something like that for myself makes me feel dismayed.
> Besides the MCU board and enclosure, you also need a bunch of mounting
> screws, standoffs, connectors, an enclosure made of sheet metal, tools
> to drill holes for the standoffs and make D-shaped cutouts for the DB9
> connectors, burn-in testing for everything, yada yada yada.  All that
> stuff would have to be ordered from someplace, maybe multiple places.

More importantly, you'd have to CONSTRAIN yourself to ONLY putting
those two serial ports in the design.  (Hmmm, should they support
modem control signals?  hardware handshaking?  flow control?  what
if I want to connect it to something -- in the FUTURE -- that has one
of those needs, beyond Rd/Td?)

Should it be programmable as a masked part?  Or, some sort of interpreted
language?  What range of bit rates should it support?  134.5?  115.2K?

I mean, if you're going to all the trouble to design/build something,
wouldn't you want to make it as "universal" as possible?  I.e., like
a VENDOR supplying a product to the largest possible market for a given
price point?

> Whenever I try to make anything physical, I invariably discover partway
> through that I need some 10 cent part that I didn't think of earlier, so
> I have to order that and wait N days for its arrival, then repeat this
> process several times.  This is why custom made anything costs so much.

No, folks who make custom devices for a living already have those
items on hand.  They likely use a particular set of components,
hardware, enclosures, etc.  Because they don't want to have to
incur *extra* costs just to put it in a ROUND box (instead of square).

> It's not like programming where if I need some chunk of software, I can
> download it and have it a minute later.
> 
> It doesn't seem like THAT outlandish a wish to hope that box described
> instead exists as an off the shelf product from somewhere.  It is weird
> that it is so hard to find.

Why do you consider it weird?  What use do folks have of EIA232 devices,
nowadays?  Are they even commonplace on PCs?  Or, have they gone the way
of the floppy disk, parallel port, PCMCIA slots, ISA bus, etc.?  How
much longer before optical discs will be obsolete (instead of just
obsolescent)?

Other than the "fallback interface" on my UPSs (in case the ethernet
i/f is not functioning), I can't think of a use that merits my having a
"serial cable" on hand.  (I think I have an old ICE that used a serial
port)  Even my older printers only use SHORT parallel cables to connect
to 1/2/3-port print servers (do I have ANY parallel ports anymore?)!

[The Market weeds out items that it doesn't consider to be of practical use]

ISTM that the entry-level product would be something with an ethernet
(or BT) port and ____________.  Like a 1/2/3/etc. port terminal server
to bridge that obsolescent technology (EIA232) to more modern comms.
"You mean you have to connect that device directly to the machine
that USES it???"

What can you do with JUST a pair of serial ports?  (because of the
requirement for it to be "in a box" and, thus, a *complete* product,
with just those I/Os).  And, if the number of use cases is small,
you're likely going to pay a lot for that "special" ability.

The last commercial product I designed with serial ports was almost
35 years ago.  And, it's goal was to *monitor* serial data streams
and provide remote notification and access to those ports (internal,
chip-level 212A modem) when certain strings were detected.

Nowadays, EVERYTHING has a network port and secure comms.

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]


#31597

FromDon Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid>
Date2023-01-21 05:05 -0700
Message-ID<tqgkeu$2j5bu$1@dont-email.me>
In reply to#31595
On 1/20/2023 8:41 PM, Don Y wrote:
> ISTM that the entry-level product would be something with an ethernet
> (or BT) port and ____________.  Like a 1/2/3/etc. port terminal server
> to bridge that obsolescent technology (EIA232) to more modern comms.
> "You mean you have to connect that device directly to the machine
> that USES it???"

I've one of these in my toy chest:

<https://www.zdnet.com/article/shrunken-linux-enter-the-cerfcube/>

Of course, $400 and 20 years ago is likely a non-starter!

(and, as one of the six faces is explicitly omitted, I wonder if
it qualifies as "boxed"?)

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#31596

FromTheo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk>
Date2023-01-21 10:53 +0000
Message-ID<HJl*keV8y@news.chiark.greenend.org.uk>
In reply to#31594
Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> wrote:
> Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> writes:
> > What is the use case for a programmable RS232-to-RS232 product?  If
> > you can think of a use case, maybe you can find somebody who makes
> > such a thing.
> 
> The search is not for an RS232-to-RS232 product per se, but for a small
> computer with two RS232 ports.  In the Z80 era, those used to be
> plentiful.  Of course they were considered full fledged personal
> computers, in large expensive boxes, given the technology of time.
> 
> The lament is that there doesn't seem to be anything like that being
> made today with modern technology.  Just a small box with a programmable
> microprocessor inside, and two RS232 ports.  All the available products
> add a massive amount of additional complexity.  It does seem like an
> opportunity.

A 'small computer' these days is a PC or a Raspberry Pi.  Something smaller
than that isn't a 'computer', it's an 'embedded microcontroller' - and those
are usually expressly designed not to be programmable.  Which means we're
left with repurposing something else where they happened to leave a JTAG/etc
port exposed.

A PC or Pi would be the wrong tool for the job IMO - one day you're going to
turn the power on and find the storage is corrupted or failed and it won't
boot.

The suggestion of a PLC is a good one - that is a use case for a
microcontroller-level programmable device, if you can put up with the size.
The cheap Chinese PLCs might do the job (but Rick has vetoed that route).

> Imagining making something like that for myself makes me feel dismayed.
> Besides the MCU board and enclosure, you also need a bunch of mounting
> screws, standoffs, connectors, an enclosure made of sheet metal, tools
> to drill holes for the standoffs and make D-shaped cutouts for the DB9
> connectors, burn-in testing for everything, yada yada yada.  All that
> stuff would have to be ordered from someplace, maybe multiple places.

I agree, it's a PITA.  Particularly if your organisation is not set up for
hardware manufacturing: if you need 100 units of the thing you aren't just
going to solder them up and screw them together yourself, but contracting
that volume out is annoying.

Personally I would design for the enclosure.  With the right enclosure, like
the one I linked to, it would be PCB assembly - which you could more easily
contract out - followed by clipping the enclosure around it.  There would be
no need for standoffs, screws, drilling, anything.  But still clipping 100
enclosures over boards and packaging them up might not be something your org
is set up to handle - eg if you're a strictly office setup and not designed
for packaging and shipping.

> It doesn't seem like THAT outlandish a wish to hope that box described
> instead exists as an off the shelf product from somewhere.  It is weird
> that it is so hard to find.

I think it's just that RS232 (at least in the DB9 form, UARTs are still
everywhere) is increasingly legacy these days, so it's getting harder to
find DB9s on things that aren't intended to convert away from RS232.  The
SCADA field is the only one I can think where microcontroller RS232 might
still be popular.

Theo

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#31587

FromHerbert Kleebauer <klee@unibwm.de>
Date2023-01-20 19:17 +0100
Message-ID<tqelsi$19m5$1@gioia.aioe.org>
In reply to#31576
On 19.01.2023 19:06, Rick C wrote:


 > You aren't making sense.  There are literally hundreds if not
 > thousands of boxes with two serial ports.  Some have only that.
 > Others have extra ports.  But none are programmable.  There
 > are lots of programmable controllers with dual serial ports,
 > but not in an enclosure.

Seems you are 25 years to late. But this company is still selling
its device (with a Z180 processor). Seems this is what you are
asking for (but maybe without the price):

https://www.kksystems.com/programmable-protocol-converters/ppc-4-h2-c.html/
https://www.kksystems.com/datasheets/pdf_files/ppclft.pdf
https://www.kksystems.com/datasheets/pdf_files/ppcman.pdf



 > Alibaba is literally the last place I would by something like
 > this, for all the obvious reasons, including the risk of never
 > Yseeing the product or your money again.

I bought many things from Aliexpress an nearly never had
any problems.

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]


#31588

FromRick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com>
Date2023-01-20 12:37 -0800
Message-ID<04d9b943-9b70-4f7a-a674-a3a4a627a1dan@googlegroups.com>
In reply to#31587
On Friday, January 20, 2023 at 1:17:59 PM UTC-5, Herbert Kleebauer wrote:
> On 19.01.2023 19:06, Rick C wrote: 
> 
> 
> > You aren't making sense. There are literally hundreds if not 
> > thousands of boxes with two serial ports. Some have only that. 
> > Others have extra ports. But none are programmable. There 
> > are lots of programmable controllers with dual serial ports, 
> > but not in an enclosure.
> Seems you are 25 years to late. But this company is still selling 
> its device (with a Z180 processor). Seems this is what you are 
> asking for (but maybe without the price): 
> 
> https://www.kksystems.com/programmable-protocol-converters/ppc-4-h2-c.html/ 
> https://www.kksystems.com/datasheets/pdf_files/ppclft.pdf 
> https://www.kksystems.com/datasheets/pdf_files/ppcman.pdf
> > Alibaba is literally the last place I would by something like 
> > this, for all the obvious reasons, including the risk of never
> > Yseeing the product or your money again. 
> 
> I bought many things from Aliexpress an nearly never had 
> any problems.

I'm pleased for you.  People safely cross streets outside the crosswalk, yet people are killed doing that every day.  Do you tell your kids it's a good thing to do?  

-- 

Rick C.

-+-- Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
-+-- Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]


#31589

FromDimiter_Popoff <dp@tgi-sci.com>
Date2023-01-20 23:02 +0200
Message-ID<tqevgt$27ml6$1@dont-email.me>
In reply to#31588
On 1/20/2023 22:37, Rick C wrote:
> On Friday, January 20, 2023 at 1:17:59 PM UTC-5, Herbert Kleebauer wrote:
>> On 19.01.2023 19:06, Rick C wrote:
>>
>>
>>> You aren't making sense. There are literally hundreds if not
>>> thousands of boxes with two serial ports. Some have only that.
>>> Others have extra ports. But none are programmable. There
>>> are lots of programmable controllers with dual serial ports,
>>> but not in an enclosure.
>> Seems you are 25 years to late. But this company is still selling
>> its device (with a Z180 processor). Seems this is what you are
>> asking for (but maybe without the price):
>>
>> https://www.kksystems.com/programmable-protocol-converters/ppc-4-h2-c.html/
>> https://www.kksystems.com/datasheets/pdf_files/ppclft.pdf
>> https://www.kksystems.com/datasheets/pdf_files/ppcman.pdf
>>> Alibaba is literally the last place I would by something like
>>> this, for all the obvious reasons, including the risk of never
>>> Yseeing the product or your money again.
>>
>> I bought many things from Aliexpress an nearly never had
>> any problems.
> 
> I'm pleased for you.  People safely cross streets outside the crosswalk, yet people are killed doing that every day.  Do you tell your kids it's a good thing to do?
> 

Buying a $10 or a $100 thing at aliexpress is not that similar
to getting killed, you know.
I have bought a lot of small stuff there and have not yet been killed.
Oh yes, and I do cross streets as I please and I am still alive, but
that's not a very similar matter, as explained above.

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]


#31590

FromRick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com>
Date2023-01-20 14:08 -0800
Message-ID<b8da32a0-5f0b-47a8-9afd-9cc56dcc82b6n@googlegroups.com>
In reply to#31589
On Friday, January 20, 2023 at 4:02:27 PM UTC-5, Dimiter wrote:
> On 1/20/2023 22:37, Rick C wrote: 
> > On Friday, January 20, 2023 at 1:17:59 PM UTC-5, Herbert Kleebauer wrote: 
> >> On 19.01.2023 19:06, Rick C wrote: 
> >> 
> >> 
> >>> You aren't making sense. There are literally hundreds if not 
> >>> thousands of boxes with two serial ports. Some have only that. 
> >>> Others have extra ports. But none are programmable. There 
> >>> are lots of programmable controllers with dual serial ports, 
> >>> but not in an enclosure. 
> >> Seems you are 25 years to late. But this company is still selling 
> >> its device (with a Z180 processor). Seems this is what you are 
> >> asking for (but maybe without the price): 
> >> 
> >> https://www.kksystems.com/programmable-protocol-converters/ppc-4-h2-c.html/ 
> >> https://www.kksystems.com/datasheets/pdf_files/ppclft.pdf 
> >> https://www.kksystems.com/datasheets/pdf_files/ppcman.pdf 
> >>> Alibaba is literally the last place I would by something like 
> >>> this, for all the obvious reasons, including the risk of never 
> >>> Yseeing the product or your money again. 
> >> 
> >> I bought many things from Aliexpress an nearly never had 
> >> any problems. 
> > 
> > I'm pleased for you. People safely cross streets outside the crosswalk, yet people are killed doing that every day. Do you tell your kids it's a good thing to do? 
> >
> Buying a $10 or a $100 thing at aliexpress is not that similar 
> to getting killed, you know. 
> I have bought a lot of small stuff there and have not yet been killed. 
> Oh yes, and I do cross streets as I please and I am still alive, but 
> that's not a very similar matter, as explained above.

My experience with Alibaba is not the same as yours.  With Ebay, I can dispute a sale and get a refund.  Alibaba spent literally months demanding more and more things from me, many which made no sense because of the language barrier.  In the end, they said I failed to prove the vendor was lying when he said he shipped the item listed.  Photos were not good enough.  They wanted a video for some reason.  Alibaba simply does not support their customers, so I don't use them.  Ebay is worth while, but some things sold are perpetually fake, or crap and you have to buy them to find out, then make the "return", which the vendor is required to pay for, so they often say keep it. 

I even bought crap wire on Ebay from a vendor relatively local.  The actual wire gauge was about three numbers below the claimed AWG.  Bought 20 gauge and got 23 gauge.  Bought 18 gauge and got 21 gauge, etc.  I was getting the refund, so I thought I'd try seeing how far this went.  16 gauge was actually 19 gauge and 12 gauge, was actually 15 gauge.  The vendor could not say they didn't know, the wire insulation has *their* name on it!  So it's a custom marked product.  How could they not know they are selling mislabeled wire? 

Yeah, they all sell crap.  I just find it possible to get a refund from Ebay.  Alibaba, not so much. 

-- 

Rick C.

-+-+ Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
-+-+ Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]


#31591

FromDimiter_Popoff <dp@tgi-sci.com>
Date2023-01-21 01:38 +0200
Message-ID<tqf8lo$29al8$1@dont-email.me>
In reply to#31590
On 1/21/2023 0:08, Rick C wrote:
> On Friday, January 20, 2023 at 4:02:27 PM UTC-5, Dimiter wrote:
>> On 1/20/2023 22:37, Rick C wrote:
>>> On Friday, January 20, 2023 at 1:17:59 PM UTC-5, Herbert Kleebauer wrote:
>>>> On 19.01.2023 19:06, Rick C wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> You aren't making sense. There are literally hundreds if not
>>>>> thousands of boxes with two serial ports. Some have only that.
>>>>> Others have extra ports. But none are programmable. There
>>>>> are lots of programmable controllers with dual serial ports,
>>>>> but not in an enclosure.
>>>> Seems you are 25 years to late. But this company is still selling
>>>> its device (with a Z180 processor). Seems this is what you are
>>>> asking for (but maybe without the price):
>>>>
>>>> https://www.kksystems.com/programmable-protocol-converters/ppc-4-h2-c.html/
>>>> https://www.kksystems.com/datasheets/pdf_files/ppclft.pdf
>>>> https://www.kksystems.com/datasheets/pdf_files/ppcman.pdf
>>>>> Alibaba is literally the last place I would by something like
>>>>> this, for all the obvious reasons, including the risk of never
>>>>> Yseeing the product or your money again.
>>>>
>>>> I bought many things from Aliexpress an nearly never had
>>>> any problems.
>>>
>>> I'm pleased for you. People safely cross streets outside the crosswalk, yet people are killed doing that every day. Do you tell your kids it's a good thing to do?
>>>
>> Buying a $10 or a $100 thing at aliexpress is not that similar
>> to getting killed, you know.
>> I have bought a lot of small stuff there and have not yet been killed.
>> Oh yes, and I do cross streets as I please and I am still alive, but
>> that's not a very similar matter, as explained above.
> 
> My experience with Alibaba is not the same as yours.  With Ebay, I can dispute a sale and get a refund.  Alibaba spent literally months demanding more and more things from me, many which made no sense because of the language barrier.  In the end, they said I failed to prove the vendor was lying when he said he shipped the item listed.  Photos were not good enough.  They wanted a video for some reason.  Alibaba simply does not support their customers, so I don't use them.  Ebay is worth while, but some things sold are perpetually fake, or crap and you have to buy them to find out, then make the "return", which the vendor is required to pay for, so they often say keep it.
> 
> I even bought crap wire on Ebay from a vendor relatively local.  The actual wire gauge was about three numbers below the claimed AWG.  Bought 20 gauge and got 23 gauge.  Bought 18 gauge and got 21 gauge, etc.  I was getting the refund, so I thought I'd try seeing how far this went.  16 gauge was actually 19 gauge and 12 gauge, was actually 15 gauge.  The vendor could not say they didn't know, the wire insulation has *their* name on it!  So it's a custom marked product.  How could they not know they are selling mislabeled wire?
> 
> Yeah, they all sell crap.  I just find it possible to get a refund from Ebay.  Alibaba, not so much.
> 

I am not sure I'd bother to open a $10 dispute on aliexpress, I'd
expect your outcome plus wasted time. I can't remember buying anything
which costs > $100. They try to keep their reputation (aliexpress,
not alibaba) as they make their money on huge sale quantities
of small value all over the planet.
  Recently I bought a nice keyboard at something like $40+,
can't believe I got something *that* good at this price (way
better than the Cherry-G84-s I have been using for decades now).
On alibaba the risks are way higher I guess, depends on luck.
My sister buys stuff from someone in Pakistan she found over alibaba
and she is happy (many years now). No surprise your experience has
been different.
I would not consider buying chips on either alibaba or aliexpress
of course. I bought some fast HV diodes on ebay twice and what
I got was not just OK but unobtainable otherwise....
Go figure, life is colourful and full of risks of various
probabilities and stakes.

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]


#31592

Fromantispam@math.uni.wroc.pl
Date2023-01-21 01:58 +0000
Message-ID<tqfgsj$1pj2$1@gioia.aioe.org>
In reply to#31590
Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Friday, January 20, 2023 at 4:02:27 PM UTC-5, Dimiter wrote:
> > On 1/20/2023 22:37, Rick C wrote: 
> > > On Friday, January 20, 2023 at 1:17:59 PM UTC-5, Herbert Kleebauer wrote: 
> > >> On 19.01.2023 19:06, Rick C wrote: 
> > >> 
> > >> 
> > >>> You aren't making sense. There are literally hundreds if not 
> > >>> thousands of boxes with two serial ports. Some have only that. 
> > >>> Others have extra ports. But none are programmable. There 
> > >>> are lots of programmable controllers with dual serial ports, 
> > >>> but not in an enclosure. 
> > >> Seems you are 25 years to late. But this company is still selling 
> > >> its device (with a Z180 processor). Seems this is what you are 
> > >> asking for (but maybe without the price): 
> > >> 
> > >> https://www.kksystems.com/programmable-protocol-converters/ppc-4-h2-c.html/ 
> > >> https://www.kksystems.com/datasheets/pdf_files/ppclft.pdf 
> > >> https://www.kksystems.com/datasheets/pdf_files/ppcman.pdf 
> > >>> Alibaba is literally the last place I would by something like 
> > >>> this, for all the obvious reasons, including the risk of never 
> > >>> Yseeing the product or your money again. 
> > >> 
> > >> I bought many things from Aliexpress an nearly never had 
> > >> any problems. 
> > > 
> > > I'm pleased for you. People safely cross streets outside the crosswalk, yet people are killed doing that every day. Do you tell your kids it's a good thing to do? 
> > >
> > Buying a $10 or a $100 thing at aliexpress is not that similar 
> > to getting killed, you know. 
> > I have bought a lot of small stuff there and have not yet been killed. 
> > Oh yes, and I do cross streets as I please and I am still alive, but 
> > that's not a very similar matter, as explained above.
> 
> My experience with Alibaba is not the same as yours.  With Ebay, I can dispute a sale and get a refund.  Alibaba spent literally months demanding more and more things from me, many which made no sense because of the language barrier.  In the end, they said I failed to prove the vendor was lying when he said he shipped the item listed.  Photos were not good enough.  They wanted a video for some reason.  Alibaba simply does not support their customers, so I don't use them.  Ebay is worth while, but some things sold are perpetually fake, or crap and you have to buy them to find out, then make the "return", which the vendor is required to pay for, so they often say keep it. 
> 
> I even bought crap wire on Ebay from a vendor relatively local.  The actual wire gauge was about three numbers below the claimed AWG.  Bought 20 gauge and got 23 gauge.  Bought 18 gauge and got 21 gauge, etc.  I was getting the refund, so I thought I'd try seeing how far this went.  16 gauge was actually 19 gauge and 12 gauge, was actually 15 gauge.  The vendor could not say they didn't know, the wire insulation has *their* name on it!  So it's a custom marked product.  How could they not know they are selling mislabeled wire? 
> 
> Yeah, they all sell crap.  I just find it possible to get a refund from Ebay.  Alibaba, not so much. 
>

IIUC Alibaba is intended for larger transactions and has different
rules than Aliexpress.  I did only small or very small transactions.
For me problem with Ebay was that with cheap shipping things would
not arrive and there were no way to dispute this.  I can understand
this, without tracking there is no way to know who was to blame:
seller, mail or fraudolent customer.  Tracked shipping was
significantly more expensive than goods that I wanted to buy.
OTOH things with cheap/free shipping ordered on Aliexpress were
arriving fine.  So my conclusion was that Ebay sellers were at
fault and I stopped buying on Ebay.

There was period when also some shipments from Aliexpress vanished,
but AFAICS Aliexpress got this under control: they have reasonably
cheap tracked shipping and it seem that on all shipments they track
if package leaves China.  That probably removes all incentives
for sellers to fail sending things.

Most Aliexpress seller have resonably high volumes.  They sell
what customers want to buy.  It can not be completely non functional,
there are not enough fools to support this.  The problem is
that most customers are unable or unwillig to fully examine
what they bought.  So you get rechargable batteries with
completely bogus stated capacity or USB chargers with inflated
charging current.  I bought a lot of things on Aliexpress
but I am trying to keep realistic expectations.  I bought
few USB chargers knowing that stated current (2.1 A) is
much bigger than real one (0.85 A), but they were good enough
for my purpose.  I bought resistors and small power transistors.
My reasoning was that making something that looks like resistor
or transistor in small/medium volume is probably more expensive
than real resistor/transistor in high volume.  And hopefully
there are not enough fools to fund high volume manufacturing
of fake transistors.  Well, I got resistors and resonably
performing transistors. I can not say if there are some hidden
troubles but to the moment I am satisfied with what I bought.
In the past I bought few STM chips from Chinese sellers.
AFAIK those chips were widely used in China, the unit price was
much lower than unit price from western distributors, but
significantly higher that supposed volume price.  So it
looked resonable that Chinese seller could sell them at lower
margin and still make a profit.  And up to now I had no
problem with those chips.

OTOH if there is advanced/rare western part it would be strange
if Chinese seller had some magic cheap source of the part, so
I am very suspicious of such offers.  Power mosfets were
borderline case.  Around 2019 I bought packs of 10 from several
sellers.  Essentially all were out of specs (too large Rds_on).  If
there were moderate discrepancy I made comments stating real paramenter,
in few cases of really large discrepancy I requested partial
refund (and got it possibly after a dispute).  To say the truth,
refunds that I got were probably not worth my time, I did this
mostly from feeling of moral duty, to make sure sellers know
that there is problem and to discourage them from selling such
bad parts.

When buying on Aliexpress it is useful to read buyers comments.
Especially Russians tend to measure/test bought parts, so you
can have resonable idea what you are buying.

BTW: classic Arduino boards are supposed to have Atmega 328P.
I have heard that recently a lot of boards instead had Chinese
chip.  IIUC such boards also appeared in western distribution
channels, so it is possible that some Arduino boards that you
use is equpped with Chinese chip.  On paper Chinese chip should
be better than Atmega 328P, but it has incompatiblities.  For
simple use in Arduino it may be compatible enough, but in case
of troubles difference between chips is one of possible reasons.

-- 
                              Waldek Hebisch

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]


#31593

FromRick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com>
Date2023-01-20 18:44 -0800
Message-ID<ff710910-5784-47c8-aa7a-be3a7eaec49an@googlegroups.com>
In reply to#31592
On Friday, January 20, 2023 at 8:58:49 PM UTC-5, anti...@math.uni.wroc.pl wrote:
> Rick C <gnuarm.del...@gmail.com> wrote: 
> > On Friday, January 20, 2023 at 4:02:27 PM UTC-5, Dimiter wrote: 
> > > On 1/20/2023 22:37, Rick C wrote: 
> > > > On Friday, January 20, 2023 at 1:17:59 PM UTC-5, Herbert Kleebauer wrote: 
> > > >> On 19.01.2023 19:06, Rick C wrote: 
> > > >> 
> > > >> 
> > > >>> You aren't making sense. There are literally hundreds if not 
> > > >>> thousands of boxes with two serial ports. Some have only that. 
> > > >>> Others have extra ports. But none are programmable. There 
> > > >>> are lots of programmable controllers with dual serial ports, 
> > > >>> but not in an enclosure. 
> > > >> Seems you are 25 years to late. But this company is still selling 
> > > >> its device (with a Z180 processor). Seems this is what you are 
> > > >> asking for (but maybe without the price): 
> > > >> 
> > > >> https://www.kksystems.com/programmable-protocol-converters/ppc-4-h2-c.html/ 
> > > >> https://www.kksystems.com/datasheets/pdf_files/ppclft.pdf 
> > > >> https://www.kksystems.com/datasheets/pdf_files/ppcman.pdf 
> > > >>> Alibaba is literally the last place I would by something like 
> > > >>> this, for all the obvious reasons, including the risk of never 
> > > >>> Yseeing the product or your money again. 
> > > >> 
> > > >> I bought many things from Aliexpress an nearly never had 
> > > >> any problems. 
> > > > 
> > > > I'm pleased for you. People safely cross streets outside the crosswalk, yet people are killed doing that every day. Do you tell your kids it's a good thing to do? 
> > > > 
> > > Buying a $10 or a $100 thing at aliexpress is not that similar 
> > > to getting killed, you know. 
> > > I have bought a lot of small stuff there and have not yet been killed. 
> > > Oh yes, and I do cross streets as I please and I am still alive, but 
> > > that's not a very similar matter, as explained above. 
> > 
> > My experience with Alibaba is not the same as yours. With Ebay, I can dispute a sale and get a refund. Alibaba spent literally months demanding more and more things from me, many which made no sense because of the language barrier. In the end, they said I failed to prove the vendor was lying when he said he shipped the item listed. Photos were not good enough. They wanted a video for some reason. Alibaba simply does not support their customers, so I don't use them. Ebay is worth while, but some things sold are perpetually fake, or crap and you have to buy them to find out, then make the "return", which the vendor is required to pay for, so they often say keep it. 
> > 
> > I even bought crap wire on Ebay from a vendor relatively local. The actual wire gauge was about three numbers below the claimed AWG. Bought 20 gauge and got 23 gauge. Bought 18 gauge and got 21 gauge, etc. I was getting the refund, so I thought I'd try seeing how far this went. 16 gauge was actually 19 gauge and 12 gauge, was actually 15 gauge. The vendor could not say they didn't know, the wire insulation has *their* name on it! So it's a custom marked product. How could they not know they are selling mislabeled wire? 
> > 
> > Yeah, they all sell crap. I just find it possible to get a refund from Ebay. Alibaba, not so much. 
> >
> IIUC Alibaba is intended for larger transactions and has different 
> rules than Aliexpress. I did only small or very small transactions. 
> For me problem with Ebay was that with cheap shipping things would 
> not arrive and there were no way to dispute this. 

I've had exactly that problem.  The only issue is that the vendor will ask you to wait another week or two, and repeat that process until the 60 day window has closed.  So I say, no, I want a refund.  Even if they don't cooperate, Ebay has always provided a refund.  This has happened maybe four or five times.  Once, the ordered item really did arrive.  

> I can understand 
> this, without tracking there is no way to know who was to blame: 
> seller, mail or fraudolent customer. Tracked shipping was 
> significantly more expensive than goods that I wanted to buy. 
> OTOH things with cheap/free shipping ordered on Aliexpress were 
> arriving fine. So my conclusion was that Ebay sellers were at 
> fault and I stopped buying on Ebay. 

The shipping on Ebay has improved.  Very few of the vendors now use untracked shipping.  But even if the tracking says it was delivered, you can still get a refund for an undelivered item.  The shipping company does not always deliver to the right home or mailbox.  Sometimes people give it to you, other times they don't.   In any event, again, I've never been turned down for a refund by Ebay if I do everything right that I'm supposed to do, which is mostly, report it within 60 days of ordering.  

Once a Japanese company shipped an item wrong.  I don't recall the detail, but they wanted me to pay the return shipping which was not cheap.  I dug my heals in and eventually lost.  Don't recall the reason why.  They stopped receiving my emails, or any other communications.  So I opened another account, ordered the deluxe version of the same thing, shipped to another address.  I made a claim with the credit card and got the refund.  Then I sold this one to pay for the loss on the other one.  Maybe that was dishonest, but I feel I was cheated on the first order, so justified. 

I also ordered a Hantek attached oscilloscope, the low end model, to evaluate before buying a higher end model.  I couldn't even get the software to load.  No support to speak of, so I put in for a return.  For whatever readson, the tracking was mucked and said it was never delivered.  So I got the refund without an argument.  Hantek is real crap goods, btw. 


> There was period when also some shipments from Aliexpress vanished, 
> but AFAICS Aliexpress got this under control: they have reasonably 
> cheap tracked shipping and it seem that on all shipments they track 
> if package leaves China. That probably removes all incentives 
> for sellers to fail sending things. 

No, they send something, just not anything of value.  Aliexpress can't seem to understand the ICs which don't work, are counterfeit and you don't have to test every one on the reel to know they are all crap.  The real issue was the language barrier.  They don't speak English, rather use automated translators in both directions, so don't understand half of what you are saying.  They also don't understand what an IC is and think counterfeit is only for handbags.  


> Most Aliexpress seller have resonably high volumes. They sell 
> what customers want to buy. It can not be completely non functional, 
> there are not enough fools to support this. 

LOL!  If they buy counterfeit ICs at $0.05 each, they don't need to sell many at $5.00 to make profit. 


> The problem is 
> that most customers are unable or unwillig to fully examine 
> what they bought. So you get rechargable batteries with 
> completely bogus stated capacity or USB chargers with inflated 
> charging current. I bought a lot of things on Aliexpress 
> but I am trying to keep realistic expectations. I bought 
> few USB chargers knowing that stated current (2.1 A) is 
> much bigger than real one (0.85 A), but they were good enough 
> for my purpose. I bought resistors and small power transistors. 
> My reasoning was that making something that looks like resistor 
> or transistor in small/medium volume is probably more expensive 
> than real resistor/transistor in high volume. And hopefully 
> there are not enough fools to fund high volume manufacturing 
> of fake transistors. 

I don't think you understand.  There are any number of things that look like the thing they are selling you, which will pass a visual inspection if you close one eye and have no idea what you are looking for.  But they are fake.  Even a $0.10 transistor has a lot of markup if they only pay  $0.001 each for a reject.  It might work well enough to light the LED on a transistor tester.  


> Well, I got resistors and resonably 
> performing transistors. I can not say if there are some hidden 
> troubles but to the moment I am satisfied with what I bought. 

Sure, if you only need crap components, then you are good to go!  


> In the past I bought few STM chips from Chinese sellers. 
> AFAIK those chips were widely used in China, the unit price was 
> much lower than unit price from western distributors, but 
> significantly higher that supposed volume price. So it 
> looked resonable that Chinese seller could sell them at lower 
> margin and still make a profit. And up to now I had no 
> problem with those chips. 
> 
> OTOH if there is advanced/rare western part it would be strange 
> if Chinese seller had some magic cheap source of the part, so 
> I am very suspicious of such offers. Power mosfets were 
> borderline case. Around 2019 I bought packs of 10 from several 
> sellers. Essentially all were out of specs (too large Rds_on). If 
> there were moderate discrepancy I made comments stating real paramenter, 
> in few cases of really large discrepancy I requested partial 
> refund (and got it possibly after a dispute). To say the truth, 
> refunds that I got were probably not worth my time, I did this 
> mostly from feeling of moral duty, to make sure sellers know 
> that there is problem and to discourage them from selling such 
> bad parts. 
> 
> When buying on Aliexpress it is useful to read buyers comments. 
> Especially Russians tend to measure/test bought parts, so you 
> can have resonable idea what you are buying. 

I've never found any selling sites with good reviews.  Many are made up from whole cloth.  I recall when Ebay had some sort of rating system in both directions.  There were vendors who would set up buyer accounts and buy things at a penny.  Good reviews in both directions and credibility would increase.  Eventually Ebay put an end to it, partly by all but eliminating reviews of buyers.  Now, I find very few sellers with fewer than thousands of ratings.  If they have few ratings, or are below 99% positive, I avoid them if I have choice.  One thing I've learned is to completely avoid flash drives on any of these sites.  90% of the time, they will fail a good memory test.  Seems they use a flash drive 8 or 16 times smaller and flip the bits on the size reporting.  They can sell a bunch of these before they are booted off the service.  


> BTW: classic Arduino boards are supposed to have Atmega 328P. 
> I have heard that recently a lot of boards instead had Chinese 
> chip. IIUC such boards also appeared in western distribution 
> channels, so it is possible that some Arduino boards that you 
> use is equpped with Chinese chip. On paper Chinese chip should 
> be better than Atmega 328P, but it has incompatiblities. For 
> simple use in Arduino it may be compatible enough, but in case 
> of troubles difference between chips is one of possible reasons. 

I don't have details, but I'm pretty sure they are using an actual Arduino nano from the original Arduino vendor.  You'd think they are buying from mainstream vendors, no fakes. 

-- 

Rick C.

-++- Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
-++- Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

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#31598

Fromantispam@math.uni.wroc.pl
Date2023-01-21 20:02 +0000
Message-ID<tqhgcl$8v6$1@gioia.aioe.org>
In reply to#31593
Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Friday, January 20, 2023 at 8:58:49 PM UTC-5, anti...@math.uni.wroc.pl wrote:
> > Rick C <gnuarm.del...@gmail.com> wrote: 
> > > On Friday, January 20, 2023 at 4:02:27 PM UTC-5, Dimiter wrote: 
> > > > On 1/20/2023 22:37, Rick C wrote: 
> > > > > On Friday, January 20, 2023 at 1:17:59 PM UTC-5, Herbert Kleebauer wrote: 
> > > > >> On 19.01.2023 19:06, Rick C wrote:
<snip>
> > > My experience with Alibaba is not the same as yours. With Ebay, I can dispute a sale and get a refund. Alibaba spent literally months demanding more and more things from me, many which made no sense because of the language barrier. In the end, they said I failed to prove the vendor was lying when he said he shipped the item listed. Photos were not good enough. They wanted a video for some reason. Alibaba simply does not support their customers, so I don't use them. Ebay is worth while, but some things sold are perpetually fake, or crap and you have to buy them to find out, then make the "return", which the vendor is required to pay for, so they often say keep it. 
> > > 
> > > I even bought crap wire on Ebay from a vendor relatively local. The actual wire gauge was about three numbers below the claimed AWG. Bought 20 gauge and got 23 gauge. Bought 18 gauge and got 21 gauge, etc. I was getting the refund, so I thought I'd try seeing how far this went. 16 gauge was actually 19 gauge and 12 gauge, was actually 15 gauge. The vendor could not say they didn't know, the wire insulation has *their* name on it! So it's a custom marked product. How could they not know they are selling mislabeled wire? 
> > > 
> > > Yeah, they all sell crap. I just find it possible to get a refund from Ebay. Alibaba, not so much. 
> > >
> > IIUC Alibaba is intended for larger transactions and has different 
<snip> 
> No, they send something, just not anything of value.  Aliexpress can't seem to understand the ICs which don't work, are counterfeit and you don't have to test every one on the reel to know they are all crap.  The real issue was the language barrier.  They don't speak English, rather use automated translators in both directions, so don't understand half of what you are saying.  They also don't understand what an IC is and think counterfeit is only for handbags.  

My impression was that verndors understood resonably well what I
wrote and answered sensibly.  The things were probably too small to
really involve a person from Aliexpress, communication from
Aliexpress looked like canned text.  So really no big problem with
Engish, but potentially could be different if matters got more
complicated (more value at stake and vendor contradicting my claims).

BTW: Aliexpress want very much to translate offers into my native
Polish.  Compared to English text that they have translations into
Polish are really funny/misleading.

> > Most Aliexpress seller have resonably high volumes. They sell 
> > what customers want to buy. It can not be completely non functional, 
> > there are not enough fools to support this. 
> 
> LOL!  If they buy counterfeit ICs at $0.05 each, they don't need to sell many at $5.00 to make profit. 

In general, probably 1 in 100 customers makes comments dealing with
actual performance of given product.  So after 100 sales, if thing is
non-functional you can expect bad opinion and after that more folks
looking at what they get and cascade of more bad opinions.  Actually
if thing is completely non-functional I would expect complaints
much earlier.  So maybe bad guy can collect few hundreds or maybe
some thousends dollars.  If one could do such thing without a cost,
then surely, there would be a lot of folks doing this.  But there
is probably some cost setting Aliexpress seller account and if
enetrprise is pure fraud, then Aliexpress is likely to take some
action (say via court or police).

My impression is that complete, pure fraud is not big problem.
Rather, problematic are goods that appear to work but are substandard
or have hidden defects.

> > The problem is 
> > that most customers are unable or unwillig to fully examine 
> > what they bought. So you get rechargable batteries with 
> > completely bogus stated capacity or USB chargers with inflated 
> > charging current. I bought a lot of things on Aliexpress 
> > but I am trying to keep realistic expectations. I bought 
> > few USB chargers knowing that stated current (2.1 A) is 
> > much bigger than real one (0.85 A), but they were good enough 
> > for my purpose. I bought resistors and small power transistors. 
> > My reasoning was that making something that looks like resistor 
> > or transistor in small/medium volume is probably more expensive 
> > than real resistor/transistor in high volume. And hopefully 
> > there are not enough fools to fund high volume manufacturing 
> > of fake transistors. 
> 
> I don't think you understand.  There are any number of things that look like the thing they are selling you, which will pass a visual inspection if you close one eye and have no idea what you are looking for.  But they are fake.  Even a $0.10 transistor has a lot of markup if they only pay  $0.001 each for a reject.  It might work well enough to light the LED on a transistor tester.  

I was writing about basic transitors like 2N3904, BC237 and similar.
AFAICS $0.10 for such transistor is well above market price.  Few
years ago 2N3904 from big American distributor was $0.0234 per piece when
you wanted 500.  About 10 years ago reputable local distributor had
basic types for equivelent of $0.015 per piece in quantities of 100.
And BF493 was half of that.  This distributor had a warehouse and
same day (if order was early enough in the day) or next day shipping.

Chinese seller had batches of 100, with prices of order $1 per batch,
that is $0.01 per transitor.  I was a bit curious so I looked at
availability numbers.  Apparently he started from 10000 and counter
went relatively fast down.  And then restarted from 10000.  So
he was selling milions of transitors (10000 times 100 is milion).
I also looked at Farnell.  For similar type they had something like
35000 and counters were slowly changing.  So Chinese guy had _much_
larger volume than Farnell and almost surely much lower operating cost.

At prices between $0.10 and $0.20 per piece I got few TO-220
powers MOSFETS.  They were out of specs and probably rejects:
both Rds_on and junction capacitance was larger than it should
be, so this was not smaller MOSFET relabeled as bigger one.
I consider them good enough for undemanding uses in experimental
circuits.  Certainly I would not allow them to get anywhere
near production (too much risk that they would end up in
critical circuits).

> > Well, I got resistors and resonably 
> > performing transistors. I can not say if there are some hidden 
> > troubles but to the moment I am satisfied with what I bought. 
> 
> Sure, if you only need crap components, then you are good to go!  

If I had extreme requirements, then I would not use 2N3904 or
BC237.  But they are good enough for most uses.
 
> > In the past I bought few STM chips from Chinese sellers. 
> > AFAIK those chips were widely used in China, the unit price was 
> > much lower than unit price from western distributors, but 
> > significantly higher that supposed volume price. So it 
> > looked resonable that Chinese seller could sell them at lower 
> > margin and still make a profit. And up to now I had no 
> > problem with those chips. 
> > 
> > OTOH if there is advanced/rare western part it would be strange 
> > if Chinese seller had some magic cheap source of the part, so 
> > I am very suspicious of such offers. Power mosfets were 
> > borderline case. Around 2019 I bought packs of 10 from several 
> > sellers. Essentially all were out of specs (too large Rds_on). If 
> > there were moderate discrepancy I made comments stating real paramenter, 
> > in few cases of really large discrepancy I requested partial 
> > refund (and got it possibly after a dispute). To say the truth, 
> > refunds that I got were probably not worth my time, I did this 
> > mostly from feeling of moral duty, to make sure sellers know 
> > that there is problem and to discourage them from selling such 
> > bad parts. 
> > 
> > When buying on Aliexpress it is useful to read buyers comments. 
> > Especially Russians tend to measure/test bought parts, so you 
> > can have resonable idea what you are buying. 
> 
> I've never found any selling sites with good reviews.  Many are made up from whole cloth.  I recall when Ebay had some sort of rating system in both directions.  There were vendors who would set up buyer accounts and buy things at a penny.  Good reviews in both directions and credibility would increase.

There may be something like that at Aliexpress.  But I meant actual
text of comments.  It would take some effort to make up text that
is belivable and it is not clear what seller would gain.  Aliexpress
allow you to view opinions corresponding to given rating, so you
can look up why people give bad rating (while good ratings frequently
came with no text, bad ones usually give some justification).

>  Eventually Ebay put an end to it, partly by all but eliminating reviews of buyers.  Now, I find very few sellers with fewer than thousands of ratings.  If they have few ratings, or are below 99% positive, I avoid them if I have choice.  One thing I've learned is to completely avoid flash drives on any of these sites.  90% of the time, they will fail a good memory test.  Seems they use a flash drive 8 or 16 times smaller and flip the bits on the size reporting.  They can sell a bunch of these before they are booted off the service.  

I never looked at flash drives online.  I bought SD cards and at some
time there was flood of fake cards that reported much higher capacity
than they had.  But then came programs that tested real capacity
and it seems that problem essentialy vanished.  At least for
moderate capacities.

-- 
                              Waldek Hebisch

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#31599

FromRick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com>
Date2023-01-22 17:12 -0800
Message-ID<10bcaae4-401a-489a-9d00-1457a075e6e6n@googlegroups.com>
In reply to#31598
On Saturday, January 21, 2023 at 3:02:34 PM UTC-5, anti...@math.uni.wroc.pl wrote:
> Rick C <gnuarm.del...@gmail.com> wrote: 
> > On Friday, January 20, 2023 at 8:58:49 PM UTC-5, anti...@math.uni.wroc.pl wrote: 
> > > Rick C <gnuarm.del...@gmail.com> wrote: 
> > > > On Friday, January 20, 2023 at 4:02:27 PM UTC-5, Dimiter wrote: 
> > > > > On 1/20/2023 22:37, Rick C wrote: 
> > > > > > On Friday, January 20, 2023 at 1:17:59 PM UTC-5, Herbert Kleebauer wrote: 
> > > > > >> On 19.01.2023 19:06, Rick C wrote:
> <snip>
> > > > My experience with Alibaba is not the same as yours. With Ebay, I can dispute a sale and get a refund. Alibaba spent literally months demanding more and more things from me, many which made no sense because of the language barrier. In the end, they said I failed to prove the vendor was lying when he said he shipped the item listed. Photos were not good enough. They wanted a video for some reason. Alibaba simply does not support their customers, so I don't use them. Ebay is worth while, but some things sold are perpetually fake, or crap and you have to buy them to find out, then make the "return", which the vendor is required to pay for, so they often say keep it. 
> > > > 
> > > > I even bought crap wire on Ebay from a vendor relatively local. The actual wire gauge was about three numbers below the claimed AWG. Bought 20 gauge and got 23 gauge. Bought 18 gauge and got 21 gauge, etc. I was getting the refund, so I thought I'd try seeing how far this went. 16 gauge was actually 19 gauge and 12 gauge, was actually 15 gauge. The vendor could not say they didn't know, the wire insulation has *their* name on it! So it's a custom marked product. How could they not know they are selling mislabeled wire? 
> > > > 
> > > > Yeah, they all sell crap. I just find it possible to get a refund from Ebay. Alibaba, not so much. 
> > > > 
> > > IIUC Alibaba is intended for larger transactions and has different
> <snip>
> > No, they send something, just not anything of value. Aliexpress can't seem to understand the ICs which don't work, are counterfeit and you don't have to test every one on the reel to know they are all crap. The real issue was the language barrier. They don't speak English, rather use automated translators in both directions, so don't understand half of what you are saying. They also don't understand what an IC is and think counterfeit is only for handbags.
> My impression was that verndors understood resonably well what I 
> wrote and answered sensibly. 

I didn't say anything about the vendors not understanding.  I'm talking about the dispute process.  It is very heavily weighted in favor of the seller and on top of that, they have no language barrier.  I had to read their Chinese, which they suddenly started using for the dispute and Alibaba use the translator to communicate with me.  Much of the problem I had, was because they were asking me for very silly things, some of which was a language issue, no doubt, but also the fact that they are set up for selling funny clocks, t-shirts and handbags, not technically oriented items. 


> The things were probably too small to 
> really involve a person from Aliexpress, communication from 
> Aliexpress looked like canned text. So really no big problem with 
> Engish, but potentially could be different if matters got more 
> complicated (more value at stake and vendor contradicting my claims). 
> 
> BTW: Aliexpress want very much to translate offers into my native 
> Polish. Compared to English text that they have translations into 
> Polish are really funny/misleading.

Oh, yes!  The want very much to do what it takes the close the deal, they just don't care if you get ripped off. 


> > > Most Aliexpress seller have resonably high volumes. They sell 
> > > what customers want to buy. It can not be completely non functional, 
> > > there are not enough fools to support this. 
> > 
> > LOL! If they buy counterfeit ICs at $0.05 each, they don't need to sell many at $5.00 to make profit.
> In general, probably 1 in 100 customers makes comments dealing with 
> actual performance of given product. So after 100 sales, if thing is 
> non-functional you can expect bad opinion and after that more folks 
> looking at what they get and cascade of more bad opinions. 

Alibaba doesn't work that way.  


> Actually 
> if thing is completely non-functional I would expect complaints 
> much earlier. So maybe bad guy can collect few hundreds or maybe 
> some thousends dollars. If one could do such thing without a cost, 
> then surely, there would be a lot of folks doing this. But there 
> is probably some cost setting Aliexpress seller account and if 
> enetrprise is pure fraud, then Aliexpress is likely to take some 
> action (say via court or police). 

Alibaba has virtually no effective rating system.  What is there, is easily scammed by generating fake reviews and starting over with a new company name when you get bad reviews.  Like Ebay in the early days.  Ebay took the matter seriously, and stopping the vendors from being able to blacklist customers because the blue the whistle.  I remember sellers threatening me to give good, or no reviews. 


> My impression is that complete, pure fraud is not big problem. 
> Rather, problematic are goods that appear to work but are substandard 
> or have hidden defects.

Your impression is very wrong.  "Hidden defects" such as being totally counterfeit, meaning likely some reject part in the same package, that's not even the same part number. 


> > > The problem is 
> > > that most customers are unable or unwillig to fully examine 
> > > what they bought. So you get rechargable batteries with 
> > > completely bogus stated capacity or USB chargers with inflated 
> > > charging current. I bought a lot of things on Aliexpress 
> > > but I am trying to keep realistic expectations. I bought 
> > > few USB chargers knowing that stated current (2.1 A) is 
> > > much bigger than real one (0.85 A), but they were good enough 
> > > for my purpose. I bought resistors and small power transistors. 
> > > My reasoning was that making something that looks like resistor 
> > > or transistor in small/medium volume is probably more expensive 
> > > than real resistor/transistor in high volume. And hopefully 
> > > there are not enough fools to fund high volume manufacturing 
> > > of fake transistors. 
> > 
> > I don't think you understand. There are any number of things that look like the thing they are selling you, which will pass a visual inspection if you close one eye and have no idea what you are looking for. But they are fake. Even a $0.10 transistor has a lot of markup if they only pay $0.001 each for a reject. It might work well enough to light the LED on a transistor tester.
> I was writing about basic transitors like 2N3904, BC237 and similar. 
> AFAICS $0.10 for such transistor is well above market price. 

Dear god!  It was just a number to illustrate the idea.  Pick you own numbers. 


> Few 
> years ago 2N3904 from big American distributor was $0.0234 per piece when 
> you wanted 500. About 10 years ago reputable local distributor had 
> basic types for equivelent of $0.015 per piece in quantities of 100. 
> And BF493 was half of that. This distributor had a warehouse and 
> same day (if order was early enough in the day) or next day shipping. 
> 
> Chinese seller had batches of 100, with prices of order $1 per batch, 
> that is $0.01 per transitor. I was a bit curious so I looked at 
> availability numbers. Apparently he started from 10000 and counter 
> went relatively fast down. And then restarted from 10000. So 
> he was selling milions of transitors (10000 times 100 is milion). 
> I also looked at Farnell. For similar type they had something like 
> 35000 and counters were slowly changing. So Chinese guy had _much_ 
> larger volume than Farnell and almost surely much lower operating cost. 
> 
> At prices between $0.10 and $0.20 per piece I got few TO-220 
> powers MOSFETS. They were out of specs and probably rejects: 
> both Rds_on and junction capacitance was larger than it should 
> be, so this was not smaller MOSFET relabeled as bigger one. 
> I consider them good enough for undemanding uses in experimental 
> circuits. Certainly I would not allow them to get anywhere 
> near production (too much risk that they would end up in 
> critical circuits).

Ok, buy your transistors at Alibaba.   Just don't buy anything that requires some real money.   


> > > Well, I got resistors and resonably 
> > > performing transistors. I can not say if there are some hidden 
> > > troubles but to the moment I am satisfied with what I bought. 
> > 
> > Sure, if you only need crap components, then you are good to go!
> If I had extreme requirements, then I would not use 2N3904 or 
> BC237. But they are good enough for most uses.

Ok, so you actually want 2Nxxxx and don't care what you really get.  Fine. 


> > > In the past I bought few STM chips from Chinese sellers. 
> > > AFAIK those chips were widely used in China, the unit price was 
> > > much lower than unit price from western distributors, but 
> > > significantly higher that supposed volume price. So it 
> > > looked resonable that Chinese seller could sell them at lower 
> > > margin and still make a profit. And up to now I had no 
> > > problem with those chips. 
> > > 
> > > OTOH if there is advanced/rare western part it would be strange 
> > > if Chinese seller had some magic cheap source of the part, so 
> > > I am very suspicious of such offers. Power mosfets were 
> > > borderline case. Around 2019 I bought packs of 10 from several 
> > > sellers. Essentially all were out of specs (too large Rds_on). If 
> > > there were moderate discrepancy I made comments stating real paramenter, 
> > > in few cases of really large discrepancy I requested partial 
> > > refund (and got it possibly after a dispute). To say the truth, 
> > > refunds that I got were probably not worth my time, I did this 
> > > mostly from feeling of moral duty, to make sure sellers know 
> > > that there is problem and to discourage them from selling such 
> > > bad parts. 
> > > 
> > > When buying on Aliexpress it is useful to read buyers comments. 
> > > Especially Russians tend to measure/test bought parts, so you 
> > > can have resonable idea what you are buying. 
> > 
> > I've never found any selling sites with good reviews. Many are made up from whole cloth. I recall when Ebay had some sort of rating system in both directions. There were vendors who would set up buyer accounts and buy things at a penny. Good reviews in both directions and credibility would increase.
> There may be something like that at Aliexpress. But I meant actual 
> text of comments. It would take some effort to make up text that 
> is belivable and it is not clear what seller would gain. 

LOL!!!  No, that's the point.  It so EASY to come up with fake reviews.  Just lift reviews from some other vendor.  Copy-paste.  That's the easy part.  The hard part is setting up the new account after your old one has been ratted out.  So 10 minutes, rather than just 5 minutes. 


> Aliexpress 
> allow you to view opinions corresponding to given rating, so you 
> can look up why people give bad rating (while good ratings frequently 
> came with no text, bad ones usually give some justification).

Not talking about Aliexpress.  Talking about Alibaba.  Aliexpress is not much different.  They just work with smaller numbers. 

I think the last time I used Aliexpress, I ordered two of the same FPGA boards, one with a display and one without.  They shipped one FPGA board and one display.  The vendor would not acknowledge my messages.  Aliexpress did nothing.  I had to dispute it on the credit card.  


> > Eventually Ebay put an end to it, partly by all but eliminating reviews of buyers. Now, I find very few sellers with fewer than thousands of ratings. If they have few ratings, or are below 99% positive, I avoid them if I have choice. One thing I've learned is to completely avoid flash drives on any of these sites. 90% of the time, they will fail a good memory test. Seems they use a flash drive 8 or 16 times smaller and flip the bits on the size reporting. They can sell a bunch of these before they are booted off the service.
> I never looked at flash drives online. I bought SD cards and at some 
> time there was flood of fake cards that reported much higher capacity 
> than they had. But then came programs that tested real capacity 
> and it seems that problem essentialy vanished. At least for 
> moderate capacities. 

Again, not my experience.  The vendors got smart and provided their own images of passing the test.  I was asked to show a VIDEO of the unit being tested and failing.  The test takes some 12 hours or more to run!!!  I had to dispute that one on the credit card.  I stopped ordering flash on the Internet.   I was in Microcenter today, so I picked up another 256 MB flash for $20.  It's store brand, so probably not great, but it's actually the right size (minus formatting, etc).  

-- 

Rick C.

-+++ Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
-+++ Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

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#31604

FromRick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com>
Date2023-02-03 09:22 -0800
Message-ID<c4a6bdb8-eb49-4c62-82f8-3bd5054c5de7n@googlegroups.com>
In reply to#31599
Crap!  I posted about this in several forums and got nibbles from a few, including here.  I stopped replying because the waters got more murky rather than more clear.  So I wanted to wait until I had something more accurate to provide people.  I am planning to reply to you too Paul Rubin.  I just have some of my own stuff to deal with first.  

Meanwhile, someone sent a reply by a means I don't recall.  He specifically mentioned that he had designed a product in a similar enclosure to what I want.  I think he even mentioned it being IP67.  But durned if I can find it.  EEVBLOG has the worst messaging facility.  You get to see the messages coming to you, but not the messages you send.  So no conversational context!  

If this jogs anyone's memory, please contact me again. 

-- 

Rick C.

+--- Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
+--- Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

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#31605

FromRick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com>
Date2023-02-03 10:04 -0800
Message-ID<48532f8e-8a8e-41e9-becb-3ae931061778n@googlegroups.com>
In reply to#31604
On Friday, February 3, 2023 at 12:22:55 PM UTC-5, Rick C wrote:
> Crap! I posted about this in several forums and got nibbles from a few, including here. I stopped replying because the waters got more murky rather than more clear. So I wanted to wait until I had something more accurate to provide people. I am planning to reply to you too Paul Rubin. I just have some of my own stuff to deal with first. 
> 
> Meanwhile, someone sent a reply by a means I don't recall. He specifically mentioned that he had designed a product in a similar enclosure to what I want. I think he even mentioned it being IP67. But durned if I can find it. EEVBLOG has the worst messaging facility. You get to see the messages coming to you, but not the messages you send. So no conversational context! 
> 
> If this jogs anyone's memory, please contact me again. 

Nevermind.  I found the email.  I will be meeting with my brother this weekend to figure out how to proceed.  Thanks for your interest. 

-- 

Rick C.

+--+ Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
+--+ Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

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#31707

FromDimiter_Popoff <dp@tgi-sci.com>
Date2023-03-26 22:24 +0300
Message-ID<tvq662$2qrkr$1@dont-email.me>
In reply to#31605
Hard to believe the long fossilized RS-232 horse can get all that
beating again...
Next thing let's beat the baud rate detection? :D

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#31724

FromDon Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid>
Date2023-03-27 02:27 -0700
Message-ID<tvrnii$35etm$1@dont-email.me>
In reply to#31707
On 3/26/2023 12:24 PM, Dimiter_Popoff wrote:
> Hard to believe the long fossilized RS-232 horse can get all that
> beating again...

Some folks are slow to learn...

> Next thing let's beat the baud rate detection? :D

No, BREAK detection!  :>

(Check your mail.)

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#31583

Frompozz <pozzugno@gmail.com>
Date2023-01-20 08:54 +0100
Message-ID<tqdhb7$1v9sg$1@dont-email.me>
In reply to#31541
Il 17/01/2023 16:24, Rick C ha scritto:
> The unit only really needs one serial port, but it is more convenient to have two connectors, so I guess it needs to ports.  One port will only receive and the other only transmit, no handshaking.
> 
> The function is pretty simple.  A sensor sends a line of about 50 chars, at 9,600 bps, once per second.  This box counts 20 lines and adds a header.  So nothing fancy is required of the MCU.  There are parameters set when starting operation.
> 
> The main thing I'm having trouble finding, is this needs to be in a box as a unit, not a board and a box to be assembled.  Google hasn't been much help returning all sorts of things that aren't useful.
> 
> Anyone know of such a box?  The programming might be contracted out, if you are interested.  There's a prototype using an Arduino nano, but some of them are flaky and it would not hurt to start over from scratch.
> 

I don't know if the following ideas were already suggested by others in 
this long thread.

First idea is to make your own box. I know you asked for a ready-to-use 
box, but for low-medium quantities and for not extremely low-cost 
applications, IMHO making a custom box is not so difficult. There are 
many many plastic or metallic enclosures amopng you can choose.
Pick one of your favorite MCU EVB with expansion connector (even an 
Arduino with two UARTs), and pick two UART/RS232 converters on PCB (such 
as [1]). Put them in the box.
Of course you need to make some holes or apertures in the panels and 
assemble some cablings.

The second idea is to use one off-the-shelf box with a host USB port 
(based on Linux, such as Raspberry, or a simple MCU with a host USB). 
Now you only need a two-ports USB hub and a couple of USB/RS232 
converter. Of course this isn't a box, because the USB/RS232 converters 
are cables, but as usual you can put them in a custom box.


[2] https://www.digikey.it/short/nqf0tc78

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#31584

FromRick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com>
Date2023-01-20 01:03 -0800
Message-ID<25c94b86-97f0-4e1a-90a9-c94d7470e011n@googlegroups.com>
In reply to#31583
On Friday, January 20, 2023 at 2:54:21 AM UTC-5, pozz wrote:
> Il 17/01/2023 16:24, Rick C ha scritto: 
> > The unit only really needs one serial port, but it is more convenient to have two connectors, so I guess it needs to ports. One port will only receive and the other only transmit, no handshaking. 
> > 
> > The function is pretty simple. A sensor sends a line of about 50 chars, at 9,600 bps, once per second. This box counts 20 lines and adds a header. So nothing fancy is required of the MCU. There are parameters set when starting operation. 
> > 
> > The main thing I'm having trouble finding, is this needs to be in a box as a unit, not a board and a box to be assembled. Google hasn't been much help returning all sorts of things that aren't useful.
> > 
> > Anyone know of such a box? The programming might be contracted out, if you are interested. There's a prototype using an Arduino nano, but some of them are flaky and it would not hurt to start over from scratch. 
> >
> I don't know if the following ideas were already suggested by others in 
> this long thread. 
> 
> First idea is to make your own box. I know you asked for a ready-to-use 
> box, but for low-medium quantities and for not extremely low-cost 
> applications, IMHO making a custom box is not so difficult. There are 
> many many plastic or metallic enclosures amopng you can choose. 
> Pick one of your favorite MCU EVB with expansion connector (even an 
> Arduino with two UARTs), and pick two UART/RS232 converters on PCB (such 
> as [1]). Put them in the box. 
> Of course you need to make some holes or apertures in the panels and 
> assemble some cablings. 
> 
> The second idea is to use one off-the-shelf box with a host USB port 
> (based on Linux, such as Raspberry, or a simple MCU with a host USB). 
> Now you only need a two-ports USB hub and a couple of USB/RS232 
> converter. Of course this isn't a box, because the USB/RS232 converters 
> are cables, but as usual you can put them in a custom box. 
> 
> 
> [2] https://www.digikey.it/short/nqf0tc78

Thanks for your suggestion. 

-- 

Rick C.

--+- Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
--+- Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

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#31668

FromRick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com>
Date2023-03-22 12:18 -0700
Message-ID<44d115fb-0f03-4513-89db-01dc85bfbea7n@googlegroups.com>
In reply to#31541
On Tuesday, January 17, 2023 at 11:24:33 AM UTC-4, Rick C wrote:
> The unit only really needs one serial port, but it is more convenient to have two connectors, so I guess it needs to ports. One port will only receive and the other only transmit, no handshaking. 
> 
> The function is pretty simple. A sensor sends a line of about 50 chars, at 9,600 bps, once per second. This box counts 20 lines and adds a header. So nothing fancy is required of the MCU. There are parameters set when starting operation. 
> 
> The main thing I'm having trouble finding, is this needs to be in a box as a unit, not a board and a box to be assembled. Google hasn't been much help returning all sorts of things that aren't useful. 
> 
> Anyone know of such a box? The programming might be contracted out, if you are interested. There's a prototype using an Arduino nano, but some of them are flaky and it would not hurt to start over from scratch. 

I was skimming the web for this again and I think I found something from Aaeon.  Not sure why I didn't find this before.  Maybe I did, but at that time was really looking for something with a simple CPU, rather than something to run a full OS.  Beggars and choosers...

https://eshop.aaeon.com/ultra-slim-box-pc-boxer-6405.html

This one is $366, which is more than I'd like, but beggars...  It is cheaper than the tailored unit a guy is working on for us.  A sample unit doesn't work right and debugging across an ocean is not working very well.  I could have this up and running in a day or something, as long as it comes with Linux installed.  

They have a cheaper  unit with a single serial port, $287. 

https://eshop.aaeon.com/rockchip-android-system-boxer-rk88.html

Not sure if there is any real risk to sharing the serial port between the two devices.  I know there's no handshaking.  In fact, the Arduino shares a single serial port.  

The only real problem is communications.  Aaeon only has a couple each.  So far, they have not responded to my requests for delivery on 20 units. 

BTW, to those who contacted me about this and haven't heard back after the initial exchange, I'm sorry.  I got busy with my own work and lost track of the emails.  Of those who did reply, only one had a design in a box, ready for software.  But that is not yet working. 

-- 

Rick C.

+-+- Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
+-+- Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

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