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NanoRaptor

The short-lived optical parallel port brought numerous advantages to the interconnectivity table. Advantages included small size for the era, transfers free of electrical noise, the speed of parallel transfer, and the convenient ability to debug protocols just by having a look.

24 comments
V_Mags_Fox 🏳️‍⚧️🦨

@NanoRaptor I can see someone in an office breathing on the end of the cable and wiping it on their shirt.
“That’s got it. Try printing again.”

Kroc Camen

@NanoRaptor The screws can be pushed in for single-stepping; the number of support calls I had to field where someone brushed the connector and paused all communication

plaes

@NanoRaptor And we haven't yet seen the upgraded variant with UV-C lights...

Chip

@NanoRaptor Thank you for correctly identifying the shell size as DE and not DB.

Skritch Monster Collie

@NanoRaptor a cable with a segmented LED (LCD? idk) display within the connector? I have questions, like why, how, and uh... idk just I'm a bit blown away

Ives

@NanoRaptor Solves all ground-loop issues too!

Robin

@ives @NanoRaptor
You stole my joke before I even saw the post!

rl_dane

@NanoRaptor

16 bit parallel, darn respectable if you ask me! ;)

Chris [list of emoji]

@NanoRaptor

It had (and continues to have, to some small extent) success in industrial applications where it's necessary to connect an off-the-shelf computer to equipment with poor power conditioning.

rl_dane

@NanoRaptor
Not totally sure why, but this reminds me of CGA RGBI, which was technically a 4-bit (R, G, B, I) digital parallel port, but used for video.

Also, it used a DE-9 connector, but IIRC gender-reversed from the typical serial port DE-9.

Andrew

@NanoRaptor so I know this is a joke but i’m aware of a domain specific interconnect that isn’t that far off

David Glover-Aoki

@NanoRaptor It really bothers me that this would actually work.

nonspecialist

@NanoRaptor there was a short lived 2-word (16 byte) Centronics shape version as well, but the LED segments were so small that they often got blocked by mites, and you needed a magnifying glass to debug the protocol

Deborah Pickett

@NanoRaptor Extra points for the rickroll. 👍🏻

rhempel

@futzle @NanoRaptor ... How do you have the time to write down the ASCII chars frame by frame?

Thanks for saving me the time!

Deborah Pickett

@rhempel I … didn’t. Just noticed it started on 6e and ended on 70 and flashed 20 at about the right rate for a 5-5-4-3-2 word distribution and made an educated guess. @NanoRaptor

Cyber Yuki

@NanoRaptor 99% sure it's doctored, but still, it's awesome.

Aethylred

@NanoRaptor yeah, but did you ever spend 3hrs trying to get them to work only to find one was green and the other was amber

DELETED

@NanoRaptor does anyone know what type of connector this is, de-9 yielded no results

DELETED

@NanoRaptor nevermind, seems like its just gfx

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