rs 232 cable, more questions

[sporty]

k, a awhile back i made my own for p3lcd timer, but the ends looks [crummy] and the wires broke easy.

I bought 9 pin rs 232 cable and the darn thing does not work, yet my own i made does.

if there a issue ? or do only the 2 and 5 wire sockets can be used and the others just cause issues ?


since I have to wait to get window7 working with this, went back to the older laptop and then faced issues there also.
Sporty

[gpraceman]

Maybe you bought a direct connect serial cable, one intended to connect two computers together. These have pins 2 and 3 swapped at one end. You need a straight through wired cable. For a timer, the pins they use are 2, 3 and 5, with pin 5 being ground. If you have a multimeter, you can check the connector ends for continuity for each pin.

[sporty]

Ahh this sounds like what I have going on.

Mr Wizard has gave a great reply in helping me resolve this issue. Thank You randy.

That is something that would never have crossed my mind.

Sporty

[gpraceman]

The direct connect cables seem to me to be more available locally than the straight through ones. It is even tougher to find ones locally that are longer than 6ft.

[sporty]

After you said that.
I went and took mine apart in a away I coudl reuse the housing and then just cut all the wires and just connected the two wires I needed for the same and both ends.

Now I have a working cable with nice connectors. I did order some housing for my home made one for a back up.

Sporty