On Wed, 10 Dec 2008, tiggerlasv at
aim.com wrote:
<<SNIP>>
There are two different styles of DecConnect cables;
both inverted, and not inverted.?? The only difference
of course, is that one connector is flipped on one end.
When used with genuine DEC adapters, one?style worked
for printers (DCE), and the other style worked with terminals (DTE).
Ah, OK, so my cable is physically crossed - if I hold the plugs
side-by-side the colours run in reverse order. And Googling 'BC16E-10'
suggests this is a crossover. So assuming the MMJ port on my VT420 marked
'1' (plus arrows) is not broken it is likely I have a cable for a printer.
Back in the early 90's, our office used uVax
2000's,
connected to VT220's. along with various printers,
connected using DEC MMJ <> DB25 adapters.
You couldn't simply swap the DecConnect cables
because of the inverted MMP's on some of the cables.
All of our cabling and adapters were unmodified DEC products.
In the 90s I had loads of MMJ cables and adapters, and uVAX 2000s with the
3 port adapter, pizza box SCSI and external RD54 Etc. Ugh, all gone sadly
:o(
If you're really in a pinch, you can always
pop the connector off of one end of the cable,
and re-crimp it by hand.
It's a bit cumbersome, but you can use a thumb-tack
to lift the gold contacts out of the connector, and then
use a small flat-blade screwdriver to push them back in.
Just be careful not to stab yourself in the process.? ;-)
I think I'll try and find a ready made straight cable! But thanks for the
tip.
Cheers,
Andrew