Aquatic: " ... That's interesting to hear about lighting! I am an environmental scientist and I have to say serial and parallel are widely used on field equipment. Like water quality equipment like YSI, Quanta, etc. Perhaps it is more reliable than USB or FW or something. ..."
For real world, analog interface to any test equipment, good old RS232-db9 is very hard to beat. Speed in not important, since physical real world events don't happen much faster than high frequency audio ... 20k Htz or around ~~ 19k baud = less than 28k baud modems, etc. It is quite easy to make serial cables operate reliably over distances of several hundred feet at speeds of 9600 baud to 19200 baud. (Using software handshaking (^Q / ^S) and shielded twisted pair, standard serial cable @ about a dollar per foot, installed, inclusive.)
In the case of slow, low frequency signal oil field exploration and big spider webs of cables going ever which way, serial over copper is still best, and the small diameter copper wire acts as a circuit breaker [usually] when lightning strikes. (The bi-directional USB to RS-232 db9 serial interfaces are all located right next to the computer, inside the truck in the middle of that spider web.)
My guess is that water quality data and analog information happens slowly enough that RS-232 would do just fine. (If all your test signals originate in one spot, put a laptop there, use USB to the sensors and squirt the data back to home base with Ethernet = cheapest and easiest.)
USB 1.1 can get to 130 feet (40 meters) via fiber optic without serious expense = less than US$350. FireWire can go much further (over fiber to 1500 feet) with modest expense = more than US$600 plus about US$2 per foot.
Pick your favorite, but don't be too picky about the speed and the lower costs for multiple spaghetti strings makes RS-232 an obvious choice for real world analog sensors. (If you are talking pure digital interfaces where speed is more important, very long runs make EtherNet or FireWire a better choice.)
Sensors and robots at the Chernobyl disaster clean up are mostly USB1.1 over fiber, because of the higher rad environment messing with digital signals over metal conductors. Same, same for some Faraday cage work = the fiber being the key to RF shielding questions, keeping outside radio noise out.
If you are talking long runs of DVD quality digital video in a high RF or Rad environment (like that linear accelerator in your back yard = its what they use ), FireWire over fiber does the magic.
Speaking of parallel: There is still a whole lot of really valuable test equipment that uses the HPIB (GPIB) parallel interface ... works just great and there are some reliable USB interfaces for such.
Melgross: " ... for most uses, we do need a computer anyway. For external drives, USB 2 is again fast enough for most people. But USB 3 will be out shortly and the new SATA controllers will be as well. ..."
Yes, talking short runs of cable, there is always a faster gun. The real deal will be a fiber optic glass bus swizzle stick at the center of a ring of edge connected multi-processor cards, using FireWire or something similar as the bus arbitration protocol ... in a stack of coffee cans full of liquid Nitrogen ... Check out the original topography of Cray computers of the 1980's and 1990's.
----
There is much more, but my shop rate is a bit pricy ... My field rate is over the rainbow next to that big pot of gold.
"Truth is one, paths are many ..." - The Dalai Lama.
Speaking of parallel: There is still a whole lot of really valuable test equipment that uses the HPIB (GPIB) parallel interface ... works just great and there are some reliable USB interfaces for such.
Melgross: " ... for most uses, we do need a computer anyway. For external drives, USB 2 is again fast enough for most people. But USB 3 will be out shortly and the new SATA controllers will be as well. ..."
Yes, talking short runs of cable, there is always a faster gun. The real deal will be a fiber optic glass bus swizzle stick at the center of a ring of edge connected multi-processor cards, using FireWire or something similar as the bus arbitration protocol ... in a stack of coffee cans full of liquid Nitrogen ... Check out the original topography of Cray computers of the 1980's and 1990's.
----
There is much more, but my shop rate is a bit pricy ... My field rate is over the rainbow next to that big pot of gold.
"Truth is one, paths are many ..." - The Dalai Lama.
I still have my 6 foot HP-IP cable that I bought so that my Hp digital scope could print out.
$125 for that cable, and that was a while ago. Now, a cheap USB cable would suffice.
Comments
For real world, analog interface to any test equipment, good old RS232-db9 is very hard to beat. Speed in not important, since physical real world events don't happen much faster than high frequency audio ... 20k Htz or around ~~ 19k baud = less than 28k baud modems, etc. It is quite easy to make serial cables operate reliably over distances of several hundred feet at speeds of 9600 baud to 19200 baud. (Using software handshaking (^Q / ^S) and shielded twisted pair, standard serial cable @ about a dollar per foot, installed, inclusive.)
In the case of slow, low frequency signal oil field exploration and big spider webs of cables going ever which way, serial over copper is still best, and the small diameter copper wire acts as a circuit breaker [usually] when lightning strikes. (The bi-directional USB to RS-232 db9 serial interfaces are all located right next to the computer, inside the truck in the middle of that spider web.)
My guess is that water quality data and analog information happens slowly enough that RS-232 would do just fine. (If all your test signals originate in one spot, put a laptop there, use USB to the sensors and squirt the data back to home base with Ethernet = cheapest and easiest.)
USB 1.1 can get to 130 feet (40 meters) via fiber optic without serious expense = less than US$350. FireWire can go much further (over fiber to 1500 feet) with modest expense = more than US$600 plus about US$2 per foot.
Pick your favorite, but don't be too picky about the speed and the lower costs for multiple spaghetti strings makes RS-232 an obvious choice for real world analog sensors. (If you are talking pure digital interfaces where speed is more important, very long runs make EtherNet or FireWire a better choice.)
Sensors and robots at the Chernobyl disaster clean up are mostly USB1.1 over fiber, because of the higher rad environment messing with digital signals over metal conductors. Same, same for some Faraday cage work = the fiber being the key to RF shielding questions, keeping outside radio noise out.
If you are talking long runs of DVD quality digital video in a high RF or Rad environment (like that linear accelerator in your back yard = its what they use
Speaking of parallel: There is still a whole lot of really valuable test equipment that uses the HPIB (GPIB) parallel interface ... works just great and there are some reliable USB interfaces for such.
Melgross: " ... for most uses, we do need a computer anyway. For external drives, USB 2 is again fast enough for most people. But USB 3 will be out shortly and the new SATA controllers will be as well. ..."
Yes, talking short runs of cable, there is always a faster gun. The real deal will be a fiber optic glass bus swizzle stick at the center of a ring of edge connected multi-processor cards, using FireWire or something similar as the bus arbitration protocol ... in a stack of coffee cans full of liquid Nitrogen ... Check out the original topography of Cray computers of the 1980's and 1990's.
----
There is much more, but my shop rate is a bit pricy ... My field rate is over the rainbow next to that big pot of gold.
"Truth is one, paths are many ..." - The Dalai Lama.
Speaking of parallel: There is still a whole lot of really valuable test equipment that uses the HPIB (GPIB) parallel interface ... works just great and there are some reliable USB interfaces for such.
Melgross: " ... for most uses, we do need a computer anyway. For external drives, USB 2 is again fast enough for most people. But USB 3 will be out shortly and the new SATA controllers will be as well. ..."
Yes, talking short runs of cable, there is always a faster gun. The real deal will be a fiber optic glass bus swizzle stick at the center of a ring of edge connected multi-processor cards, using FireWire or something similar as the bus arbitration protocol ... in a stack of coffee cans full of liquid Nitrogen ... Check out the original topography of Cray computers of the 1980's and 1990's.
----
There is much more, but my shop rate is a bit pricy ... My field rate is over the rainbow next to that big pot of gold.
"Truth is one, paths are many ..." - The Dalai Lama.
I still have my 6 foot HP-IP cable that I bought so that my Hp digital scope could print out.
$125 for that cable, and that was a while ago. Now, a cheap USB cable would suffice.