TLDR: write a script to send serial output of sensors through Corelink. The script used pySerial and asyncio modules to send data received through the COM port to Corelink with minimal lag.

Serial communication refers to a method of transmission where data is sent over a channel bit by bit. Serial uses only one or two streams of data, with sequential transmission. It is often used with sensor data, ported in with microcontrollers like Arduino.

This term is usually used in comparison to parallel communication, where multiple streams are used to send multiple bits at once. Since both serial interfaces and data buses operate on clock cycles, transmitting a certain amount of data every pulse, it is easy to see how parallel communication is faster and similarly easy to implement. Since Corelink emphasizes speed of data transmission, why even use Serial in the first place?

Below are diagrams of both serial and parallel communication.

Serial Diagram

Parallel Diagram

One answer is in serial’s accessibility and cost-effectiveness. The number of available streams or wires for data transmission may change from project to project, and from processor to processor. When these lines become scarce, parallel communication can end up being far more expensive than is desired. The conservative nature of serial circumvents this problem.

Another answer lies in the problem of desynchronization. With parallel, multiple streams are needed for communication. However, what happens when one or multiple of these streams slow down? This results in desynchronization, or clock skew, in the data transmission, which necessitates a time-wasting correction.

On paper, Serial is slower, but it is also cheaper, more consistent, more universal, and is beginning to outpace parallel in shorter-distance communication, making it an excellent choice for transmitting and formatting data through Corelink.

Where Corelink stresses speed, the clock skew of parallel can reduce its performance in the worst-case to the slowest transmission speed, a problem that serial does not have. In addition, transferring Serial data through Corelink is applicable to almost every data type and sensor. Further testing can be done on a potential all-around sensor data sender and withn comparing the efficiency of serial and parallel data streams within the Corelink network.