RS232 is a standard for serial connections. In theory there are two ends to a RS232 connection a DTE and a DCE.

RS232 uses pin 7 for ground, and pins 2 and 3 for transmit and receive. Other pins are used for hardware flow control, Ring indication etc.

RS232 requires you to select a transmit/receieve rate called a baud rate. "Standard" PC's support up to 115200 baud. Almost everything defaults to 9600 (although not always).

Perry's helpful discovery for debugging serial connections

<Remosi> It doesn't matter what baud rate you choose, if it's not plugged in

See mouse(4) for an example of low level driver details, and see HowToSerialHOWTO? for a very detailed background and discussion.

See http://www.camiresearch.com/Data_Com_Basics/RS232_standard.html for a history of the standard.

• Pin outs
• More pin out docs
• A way for standardising RS232 cables/connectors

CategoryStandards