[Coco] Null modem cables?

Gene Heskett gene.heskett at verizon.net
Mon Feb 22 09:41:01 EST 2010


Greetings all;

I am about to throw in the towel in making serial comm work between this linx 
box and my rs-232 pack.

I have now pulled the connector off the coco end of the cable, and applied a 
pulser to the cable hooked up here to identify the signals, went down and 
hook the wire with the pulse on it back into the correct solder cup on the 
back of the db25 plug so as to make a null modem cable as per 
http://www.camireasearch.com/Data_Com_Basics_(there is more but its the 
downloadable page on the rs-232 std.) which I printed, and what I have 
matches the hookup described as "10 - DB25 NULL MODEM (standard handshaking)
where
pin 1 & 7 are grounds, 7 specifically is signal ground
Pin 2 on 1 end is connected to pin 3 on the other end and vice versa as the 
RD/TD data lines.  Normal, works.

pin 4, RTS <--pin 5 CTS and vice versa
Pin 6 & 8 are DSR & CD connected to pin 20 as DTR

So when the buffer is full on the coco end it drops DTR, which is seen here 
as DSR & CD turning red on the led sniffer.

Now, I think this DTR really should be connected to CTS, not DSR & CD.

The symptoms of course are that this linux box ignores what should be the 
stop signal, and just keeps pouring data into the pipe.  So what should be a 
740 cps zmodem transfer while running at 9600 or 19,200 baud (rz being the 
limiting factor on a 6309 equipt coco3, and its in the high 400's for a 6809 
coco3) degrades to about 150 cps due to all the error correction backups and 
resends sz has to do.

This drain bamaged 6551 we are stuck with can't be made to drop any other 
signal but DTR, or RTS (a transmitter function) and it can send a long break 
on the data line, which IMO is not the proper way to do it.

So the question is this:

Does this work for you folks using a std, off the shelf null modem, or have 
you been forced to invent your own flow controlling null modem?

And if so, how did you wire yours up?  I'm inclined to cross couple DTR and 
CTS instead, but this is not the adapter you can buy, you would have to make 
it yourself.  To me it even makes more sense, but...
 
Thanks for any insight you can share.

-- 
Cheers, Gene
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)

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