Comparison of Serial and Parallel Interfaces
Serial
|
Parallel
|
Parts Cost approx. $40.00 purchased from three suppliers |
Parts cost approx. $20.00 purchased from two suppliers |
Requires only 1 small round hole for connector |
Requires rectangular hole for DB-25 connector |
Can be used with Windows NT OS |
Can only be used with WIN3.1 and WIN95 |
Requires only 2 conductor cable. |
Requires Male-Male DB-25 cable. |
COM ports are more standard across computer hardware |
May not be compatible with newer parallel ports operating in EPP mode.
May need to set port for SPP in bios. No evidence of this with this project
yet, but other projects that use the printer port have run into this problem. |
Draws slightly more current (I will measure and post) |
Low current drain (I will measure and post) |
Potential interference from 4Mhz Oscillator (No evidence of this so
far) |
No onboard oscillator |
Requires mounting hardware (Brackets) |
DB-25 serves as mounting hardware |