1/16/2019 INTRODUCTION TO RS232 Serial communication

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INTRODUCTION TO RS232 Serial PCB SERVICES

communication
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In 1962, RS232 was introduced by Radio Sector of EIA. With the invention of electronic
devices such as printers, computers and laptops etc., the researchers felt that some device
should be manufactured so the communication between these devices can be carried out.
So RS232 was adopted as a standard to carry out digital communication as well as data
exchange. With the help of RS232, the data can be exchanged more reliably over the
analog channels. The voltage levels are de ned in the standard thus making it immune to
noise disturbances as well as reduction in data exchange error.  RS232 has many JOIN 32,112
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Page Contents [hide]

1 INTRODUCTION to RS232
 2 IMPLEMENTATION OF RS232 SUBSCRIBE TO BLOG VIA
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3 RS232 SPECIFICATIONS
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4 ELECTRICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF RS232
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
INTRODUCTION to RS232
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 To carry out communication, RS232 is used as a standard in order to link computer as well
as its peripheral devices that allow the serial data exchange. The basis working of RS232 Subscribe
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is to de ne the voltages for the path that is to be used for data exchange purposes among
 various devices. Signal level as well as common voltages, con guration of common pin
and the control signals are speci ed. This standard was basically designed for modem

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and teletypewriter. Thus it don’t provide support to several elements like framing of
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character, character encoding and error detection protocols etc. that are mandatory
whenever data transfer is going to take place. Without providing support to such devices,
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this standard cannot be adopted to carry out data transfer. So, in order to overcome this
issue, an integrated circuit known as UART i.e. “Universal Asynchronous Receiver
Transmitter” is used with RS232.

IMPLEMENTATION OF RS232
The RS232 interface works in conjunction with UART that is integrated in the controller or
processor. The bytes are being taken and thus individual bits are being transmitted in
sequential manner inside a frame. Frame can be thought as de ned structure that carries
meaningful bytes or bits sequence of data. The data ow starts with the start bit that is
further followed by eight data bits, stop bit as well as a parity bit. Once the data has been
aligned in this way, the separate line drivers play their role in conversion of UART logic
family to the RS232 logic. In the nal phase, the signals are transmitted at the speci ed
voltage level of RS232. The transfer of bits is carried out in sequential manner i.e. bits are
being sent one after another and this mode of data transfer needs that the receiver side
should be aware that when the actual bits of data are going to be received so that it can
get synchronized with the coming data.

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As starting bit, logic 0 is sent which is used to signal the receiver that new characters are Power electronics (58)
 coming. Once this is acknowledged by the receiver, the next 5 to 8 bits are sent followed by power supplies (6)
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RS232
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RS232 is considered as a complete standard. Perfect compatibility is ensured by RS232 by Tiva LaunchPad (5)
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not only de ning the electrical characteristics but also mechanical as well as functional transformer (5)
characteristics. For instance, slew rate, pin identi cation, signaling rate, voltage levels and Tutorials (8)
pluggable connectors etc. All of these speci cations as well as their values are mentioned
in the block diagram below:

Figure: RS232 Speci cations

ELECTRICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF RS232

In electrical characteristics, the voltage level, voltages withstand level as well as slew rates
are included. The pin out signals of RS232 is represented by different voltage levels with
respect to the common pin voltage. The maximum voltage speci ed by RS232 comes out
to be 25 volts. On the transmitter side, the output voltage level of driver is speci ed as +3
volts and +5 volts for representing the high levels. For low levels, -3 volts and -15 volts are
speci ed. At the receiver side, the same voltage levels are observed i.e. for high level +3
and +15 volts and for low levels, -3 and -15 volts. However, at the receiver side, the +2 volts
are provided as noise margin.

Between the +3 and -3 voltages is the dead area i.e. it is designed for absorption area. The
low voltage area is considered as ON state i.e. logic 1 and the high voltage area are
considered as OFF state i.e. logic 0. The low voltage areas are referred as Marking and
high voltage are referred as Spacing. The maximum slew rate that is allowed in RS232 is
30 volts per micro second thus the fall as well as rise time is slowed down and cross talk is
signi cantly reduced. The following gure represents the logic speci cations of RS232:

 Figure: Electrical Characteristics

 MECHANICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF RS232

 As the mechanical interface of RS232 is concerned, initially 25 pin connector was being
used. The minimum connector size speci ed by RS232 is capable of accommodating all
 the signals. Every pin is pre-de ned in order to check the compatibility among the
peripheral systems as well as the host. The male connector is used by the data terminal

equipment and for female connector; the data communication equipment is used. The type
 of gender is another important concept regarding the connector. In mechanical as well as
electrical trade, each connector comes as pair i.e. one female and one male connector. The

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1/16/2019 INTRODUCTION TO RS232 Serial communication

pins of male connector are sticking out while in case of female connector, it has holes so
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that it can hold the male connector.  

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Figure: Male and female connector

Previously, a 25 pin connector was widely used but presently, 9 pin connectors are being
used in many applications.

Figure: 25 pin & 9 pin connector

FUNCTIONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF RS232

The different signals that are being used in the interface are de ned in this section. The
signals can be categorized in four groups that are common, timing, data and control
signals. Some terminologies such as Look Back, Secondary channel along with off hook
are discussed.

Loop Back:
Back It allows user to test to ensure that their network is properly functioning.
Off Hock:
Hock This condition is occurred mostly during the communicating or dialing
phase. It prevails whenever separate receiver was used that was hangs on the hook
switch till the time when needed by user
Secondary Channel:
Channel Secondary channels are regarded as data channels. For instance,
secondary received data, secondary carrier data and Secondary transmitted data.

Presently, many new developments are made but RS232 is still used in many applications.
The reason of using RS232 lies in the simplicity of this standard that allows user to use it
for direct communication from its serial ports. Various elds like automation, laboratory as
well as surveying plays vital role in sustaining the demand of RS232. Along with RS232,
serial ports are being used for communicating with the headless system i.e. a server
having no installation of keyboard during the boot process that signi es the importance of
 RS232. That’s all for this article. Feel free to ask any question regarding this article in the
comment section below.
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