Boxed MCU with RS-232 Port

Obviously it was not explained clearly enough. But sometimes, the audience is simply not able to understand a message, no matter how well explained.

It is interesting that some people are so wrapped around the axle, that they can't stop replying to this thread, even when they have to address me in the third person.

The boxes sell refurbed at 49 Euro

It's not possible to misunderstand something I haven't read.

I just came late to observe the interpersonal argy-bargy your feisty incompetence *always* creates. Seriously mate, take a long hard took at yourself. This is not about RS-232 (which has always been badly designed, implemented, documented, and misunderstood - a fact we've all known for decades). It's about you.

Thank you for the link. I can't find a way to use English on the site. itsco.com brings up an english version of the site, but it doesn't seem to include any equipment sales. Maybe it's not the same company?

I see companies selling these on Ebay. Do you know if they will boot up and operate with no keyboard, mouse or video connected? I would run these on Linux and they would have to boot stand alone.

One of the customer reviews on the site says "Das Ganze wird am LAN ohne Monitor, Tastatur und Maus betrieben" = "All of it runs on LAN without video, keyboard and mouse", under Debian 11. I would assume that also means it can boot up in that configuration, but the review does not say that explicitly.

Thanks again. I will consider these. I found them on Ebay and other sites at similar prices. It seems there are variants with different I/O, including no serial ports. So, I'll have to be careful to check that.

I still prefer a system with no OS and low power. So the Arduino or rPi Pico is my preferred option at the moment. But those need cases. I guess the vast majority of such small units are sold for amateur use, where a case is not important. I believe they sell a version of the rPi for commercial use with have some level of assurance of continuing supply. I might want to look at that harder, but again, there's not as much support for operation without an OS.

I took a look at the Forth tools available for the AVR. Other than Forth Inc. the supply is very limited. The ARM, of course, has wide support. But this program is so simple, it could be written in any language, without concern. I'm just much more familiar with Forth these days.