24 Aug
2011
24 Aug
'11
11:29 a.m.
On 23/08/2011 20:05, Tony Duell wrote:
Now that I like!
Some of those 'universal' switching
adapters (or patchboards) had the
problem that you couldn't strap 2 signals at ne end of the cable withoug
it goign to soemthign at the other end. In particlar doing things like
looping cak RTS to CTS and each end with no connection to the otehr end
was impossible
Some of Modular Technology's Interfakers were like that, but my matrix
board breakout box has three lines for each interface that could be tied to any signal(s) without going anywhere. Most useful
gadget I ever
bought, and still in use -- and not just at home for hobby use.. Photo
at http://www.flickr.com/photos/pnt103/6074843016/in/photostream (and my
Interfaker is shown in the adjacent photo)
I wonder if these things evre turn up for sane prices on E-bay?
I do have a couple of unusual breakout boxes. The 'breakout' part is
convemntion (DIP swtiches ot interrupt each signal line nad patch leads).
They have extra facilities. One is a pocket sized thing that'll do a bit
error rate ttest, detect signal transitions, etc (there's an 8085 + EPROM
+ 8155 I/O inside). The other is a briefcase sized thing that not only
has a breakout box but also will capture the data from the line, display
it (LCD display), primnt it internal stripprinter), do RS232-current loop
conversions (with different baud rates on the 2 sides), RS232-parallel
(Centronics or Data Products IIRC) ocnversison and even program EPROMS
(!).
A couple of other things that I've found uzeful. My larger 'conventional'
breakout box uses 2mm plugs/sockets for the patch leads. I made up a
cable consisiting of a DB25 socket with pins 3 and 7 wired to 2mm plugs.
I can plug that into a terminal and use it to monitor the data on either
signal line in siad breakout box.
The othre thing I find very useful is a pocket terminal. I use an HP95LX
palmtop. The nromal serial cable for that wsa designed to link it to a PC
for data transfer and ends in a DCE-wired DE9 socket. It came with an
adapter to conver that to a DB25 socket, also DCE wired. The connector on
the machine has 4 pins, protective ground, TxD, RxD, signal ground. I
took a spare serial cabe and cut off the DE9 socket, revealing 3 wires,
Buzzing out the DE9 conenctions told me whtat they were, and I wired the
cable that connects ot the 95LX to a DB25 as a _DTE_ (I think I strapped
4-5 and 6-8-20 too) So now I cna plug it into a DCE-wired port.
-tony