Date   : Tue, 29 May 2007 18:44:02 +0100
From   : pete@... (Pete Turnbull)
Subject: PC/Beeb serial cable woe

On 29/05/2007 16:37, Kris Adcock wrote:

> I'm trying to make a serial cable to go 'twixt Beeb and PC. I'm using the
> serial-cable textfile as found in http://bbc.nvg.org/util/xfer_30.zip, but
> I'm having little joy. Which annoys me, because I built one a year or two
> ago, and had no trouble at all getting it to work. Then someone borrowed it.
> Bah.
> 
> The first thing that confuses me is that the textfile's description of the
> five-pin DIN plug (the ASCII-art of it) seems to have pins 4 and 5 swapped
> around compared to the numbers inscribed on the plugs I've bought. Can anyone
> confirm this?

Yes, it's wrong.  I've never seen one numbered like that; it doesn't 
match the DIN standard.  The picture on David Harper's webpage is 
correct.  There are also some plugs/sockets labelled A/B/C/D/E instead 
of 1...5.

> The other thing that confuses me is that the textfile doesn't have the 0v
> pins on the two plugs wired together - there just seems to be four wires that
> go from one plug to the other. Is this right?

No, it's wrong, and you need the ground connection.

-- 
Pete                                           Peter Turnbull
                                               Network Manager
                                               University of York