[time-nuts] Z3805 utility, Was: AW: (no subject)

Bob Camp lists at rtty.us
Mon May 24 11:15:33 UTC 2010


Hi

Gotta label them *something* or sorting through them in the cable bin becomes pretty difficult. 

In addition to the wiring options you can (obviously) have either a male or female on either end. There are so many "odd" pieces of gear out there that you can have pretty much any combination.

Bob


On May 23, 2010, at 11:22 PM, Robert Benward wrote:

> My experience with the term "straight through" is that I've seen RS-232 cable that have the ground pin connected to the shell.  In a "straight through" the pins are one to one and the only thing connected to the shell would be the shield if one is available.
> 
> Bob
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bob Camp" <lists at rtty.us>
> To: "Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement" <time-nuts at febo.com>
> Sent: Sunday, May 23, 2010 9:21 PM
> Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Z3805 utility, Was: AW: (no subject)
> 
> 
>> Hi
>> 
>> Long ago I decided to go with the terms "straight" and "null modem" for the cables I use. NM and ST are easy to mark and hard to confuse.
>> 
>> Bob
>> 
>> 
>> On May 23, 2010, at 8:58 PM, jimlux wrote:
>> 
>>> Stanley Reynolds wrote:
>>> 
>>>> <snip>
>>>> Dec computers / terminal servers were as I described, but many brands
>>>> were different. Still have a BOB aka break out box with LEDs to
>>>> indicate levels, matching transmit and receive is easy, getting the
>>>> hardware flow control / signaling right was a little more difficult.
>>>> straight cable = pin to pin
>>>> crossed cable = null modem = swapped pins
>>>> The phrase "null modem" comes from no modems or the configuration
>>>> that allows two singular ports to be connected, this cable would
>>>> cross the receive and transmit pins, and some would call it a cross
>>>> over cable. A null modem cable would be used to connect two computers
>>>> together and a program like kermit used to transfer files.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Yep.. DTE cable to DCE communications medium(phoneline) DCE to DTE
>>> DCE == Modem (e.g. a Bell 202 or 212, for instance)
>>> 
>>> There were the flow control (RTS/CTS) used to turn around a half duplex link.  And, there are also the secondary transmit and receive (for a low rate reverse channel).  If you were receiving data from the link (DCE), you'd assert RTS, and when the modem had switched, it would tell you CTS, and off you'd go.  (fancy modems used the reverse channel to send the request to the far end, which would acknowledge... others just use a fixed time delay)  There are also pins for the clock (since some of these modems were used on synchronous data links).
>>> 
>>> the "crossover" occured in the DCE to DCE link (that is, you'd transmit from one DCE to the other DCE's receiver)...
>>> 
>>> the nominal cable between DTE and DCE was straight through. With no real convention on male/female.. most devices had female sockets, and the cables usually were male male plugs.  IBM PCs had male on the chassis for DTE, as did some PDT-110 (VT-100/LSI-11 smart terminals), but most other terminals (the LSI ADM-x, Hazeltines, etc.) all seemed to have female, as did the TI 800 series printer/terminals.
>>> 
>>> So, a "null modem" was a cable that emulated the DCE to DCE connection..
>>> 
>>> there are/were various strategies on how sophisticated the reverse is.. do you also send the secondary channel?  What about clocks? Most folks ignored all that and used RTS/CTS
>>> 
>>> Or you strap RTS to CTS on your side, the other side does the same.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> I think the phrase "standard cable" which could be null or straight
>>>> depending on the use  is the confusing part.
>>>> Phone cables RJ11 and RJ45 swap the wires which is standard.  Network
>>>> cables match the wires with the same color always on the right which
>>>> is standard. But even when a phone cable is standard it is not
>>>> interchangeable with a standard network cable. Again we have a need
>>>> for cross as well as straight network cables.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> And, to make things worse, there are different "pair" arrangements.
>>> 
>>> 
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>> 
>> 
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