Serial Ports

jimmyw

I have a question, we normally use ~20 serial ports in a house, is this about average for most dealers? We used to use a lot more, but IP is replacing serial left and right. Thoughts?

Spire_Jeff

The number is meaningless without an idea of the size of the job. I am not sure what your motivation is for asking the question. If you are wondering which type of control is used more often, I tend to favor 232/485 in general. For really chatty devices such as media servers or lighting control systems, I prefer IP. For simple control, I prefer IR (think Sat/Cable boxes or TVs with discrete codes). For really simple devices, I prefer relay control.

The reason I prefer 232 over IP for most devices is the fact that I only have to worry about the device I am controlling, the processor and the wire connecting the two. I don't need to worry about IP address changes, switches breaking, network traffic causing problems, maintaining a connection,...

The reason I prefer IR on simple devices is because that is what is most commonly used to control the device. If there is a problem with IR control on a cable box, millions of people will call and complain. If there is a problem in the 232 or IP protocol, hundreds of people might call

The reason I prefer Relays on simply things like open/close is that it is simple to troubleshoot.

I hope that helps you answer the real question, but if you want a number, we average around 10 serial devices.

Jeff

John Nagy

I'm with Jeff, the question is a lot like "how long is a string". It only has a meaning and an answer in context.

We find that 80% or so of the whole house systems done with our software (usually from 6 to 24 rooms, maybe 10 sources, audio and video distribution, a couple theater/avr's, HVAC, security...) can be done with the 7 serial connections on a 3100.