IBM 6094-010 "Dials" protocol?

[Paul Berger]

On 2018-03-28 11:23 PM, Ethan Dicks via cctalk wrote:
> On Sun, Mar 25, 2018 at 6:09 PM, Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Now I'm really looking forward to unboxing these next month!
> My dialboxes showed up today.  The Seiko unit was advertised as having
> a PS/2 adapter.  They were mistaken.  It's a DE9-MiniDIN8 adapter,
> presumably for newer SGI or Sun machines.  I'll have to check the
> pinout.  It also came with an external PSU so I don't need to make a
> power-and-serial cable.  The Danaher Controls DLS80-1022 did not come
> with the DE9-DIN5 power-and-serial cable so I'll have to make one of
> those.
>
> -ethan
IBM Dials used a connector like that it has the serial in and out and 
+5V power on the connector.  You can find the pinout in the old 
"Adapters Devices and Cabling Information for Microchannel Systems"   I 
have seen this manual on the web, back in the microchannel days there 
was an adapter with 2 mini-din connectors on it for devices like this 
the adapter had 2 async adapter chips and fuses for the +5V power.  I 
seem to remember that the adapter was called "Graphics Device Adapter"   
Most of these IBM devices like dials, LPHK (Lighted PF Keys) and tablet 
date back to the IBM 5080 graphics workstations that where initially 
driven by mainframes but where later adapted to run off first RT system 
and then later RS/6000, but where also used on RS/6000 with with 
internal graphics adapters to support CAD programs like Catia.

Paul.