Why does the Development Board have an RS-232 connector?
To facilitate your CubeSat development. For example, you might decide that the easiest way to interface the Flight MCU to a PC/104 or PC/104-Plus module with an x86-class processor running Linux is via a serial port. This is advantageous, because RS-232 drivers operate at RS-232 voltage levels, which bypasses the issue of +3.3V to +5V translation. So, You could place your PC/104 module on the Development Board and connect its processor to the Flight MCU via this serial port. You would need to eventually design your own RS-232 interface on a user module when you integrate your design into a CubeSat. The RS-232 driver is not incorporated into the Flight Module because that would unnecessarily constrain the design. Alternatively, you could use the RS-232 port for printf()-style debugging, and simply ignore it when you integrate your design into a CubeSat.
