From: "Ethan Dicks" <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> Subject: Re: HP DraftMaster I

On 8/29/07, Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> wrote: > The usual problem is getting the right cable to connect it to the SERIAL > port of the computer. Joe Campbell's "The RS232 Solution" will teach you > what you need to know to make the cable.

I'd wager at first approximation, the usual difficulty is hardware handshaking, or lack thereof.

> If you connect a serial device to the parallel port of the computer, you > are likely to do some damage.

!!!

The fast way to turn Light Emitting Diodes to Smoke Emitting Diodes. ;-)

I've seen people toast parallel port dongles by stuffing them onto a Mac-style DB25 SCSI port before, but I've only seen serial-parallel confusion with the Amiga 1000, since they a) chose the opposite connector gender from PCs (DB25M for parallel, DB25F for serial), _and_ b) ran power over the serial and parallel connectors (along with some unusual signals like clock and system reset) which _was_ handy for, say, a host-powered voice-mail modem, but not so handy for trying to attach an ordinary printer over a cheap PC cable.