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Author Topic: using parallel serial cables as quick connects?  (Read 4104 times)

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gnateye

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using parallel serial cables as quick connects?
« on: May 09, 2002, 02:41:24 pm »
has anyone done this? i bought 3 DB25 male to female extension cables that say serial/parallel on them, i was hoping to just cut the cables in half and wire the one side to my ipac and the other to the controls and then pluggin them together

it seems like it should work fine but im not sure and i just spent 60$ on the cables so i figure i better consult my support group (yous guys) and find out the deal before i open the packages and cant return them 8)

i think i recall reading in another post somethign about this and that you have to use a multimeter (?) to make sure your pins are the same?? im really confused about this part, i have no multimeter and am not sure i can afford one, i did buy all the same brand cables cause i remember someone else saying that pin outs are different on different brands etc. i need to make some kind of quick connects though so i can switch between my 3 panels (joysticks, trackball, spinner)

can someone please help me!!!!!
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 pm by 1026619200 »

Carsten Carlos

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Re: using parallel serial cables as quick connects
« Reply #1 on: May 09, 2002, 03:49:38 pm »
Hi!

First, if you really paid $60 for three cables, return them and find some cheaper ones.
Even here in Germany you can get SCSI-extensions-cables for $6 each if you find the right dealer. At this price it won't hurt that much if you cut one apart to find out if all cables are different coloured. That is the only thing I'd fear of - if the cables have no different color codes, it would be very hard without a multimeter to find out which cable belongs to which pin.

I myself made my own interface between the Ipac and a 64pin-flatcable, but I would go this route only if you are a bit in soldering and electronics, or at least you have someone who could lend you a crimptool for the flatcable and has some soldering experience.

Best would be these SCSI-cables with centronics-plugs, they are very nice to open and reconnect, much easier then my own solution -well, you can' t have it all, I guess. I'm pretty sure you'll get these pretty somewhere, most likely even cheaper as I could get them. Be sure you have enough cables for all controls in one plug!
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 pm by 1026619200 »



jerryjanis

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Re: using parallel serial cables as quick connects
« Reply #2 on: May 09, 2002, 04:25:43 pm »
Hey, I just bought 2 DB25 male to female cables and set them up to work with the Opti-Pac.

I don't have a Multimeter, after this discussion I think I know what it is...

Inside my cable, every wire was the same color.  I cut the cable in half, stripped off the white outer casing from the ends, and stripped 2mm of the plastic from each of the 25 wires, on both ends.

I used scotch tape and marker to number each of the wires on one end.  Then I connected the male/female ends of the cables together.

I held a 'aa' battery and a flashlight light bulb and mashed one end of the battery on wire #1 against my workbench and the lightbulb on the other end of the battery, and took the yet-to-be-numbered wires from the other end of the cable and brushed them along the lightbulb's side-contact, looking for the light to come on.  When the light came on, I knew that I had found the other end of the wire, and I labeled it #1.  I went ahead and did that with wires 1..25, until I had them all figured out.

Then I just took wire number 1, hooked one end to button 1 on the optipac, and hooked up wire 1 on the other end to the button.  It worked perfectly the first time.

I suspect a multimeter is a tool designed for this purpose, and is probly a little less tedious.  Took me an hour or two to find them all.

But I tell you, man, it's SWEET.  Like everything with building your own arcade controls, it's TOO sweet.  My mind baloons into all the great things I can now build, and I can't really quite keep up (especially when I keep losing precious time by playing all the games).

It's great, you connect one set of wires to the i-pac, and the other set to the controls, and you have a solid system for yanking apart controls and connecting a different one.

I sure wish there was a DB 32 or something...  I need just a few more wires...

I paid $12 per 6 foot cable at Radio Shack.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 pm by 1026619200 »

Carsten Carlos

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Re: using parallel serial cables as quick connects
« Reply #3 on: May 09, 2002, 11:22:49 pm »
Quote
I sure wish there was a DB 32 or something

That's why I stated before to use SCSI-cables - they have 50 pins or more :)
Using a multimeter is easier in handling as a light bulb (although this certainly works, in my childhood I did it the same way), maybe you can get a cheap one, important thing is that it can buzz when the connection is closes, this makes it much more easier than having to look at a display!



Carsten Carlos

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Re: using parallel serial cables as quick connects
« Reply #4 on: May 10, 2002, 12:16:12 am »
To give you a clue what you are looking for, here is a picture! Unfortunately it is only a male-male at this pic, they use all the same pictures even for the extension-cables in their catalogue.



They cost around 3 bucks (1,8 meters long) here, so try to get them cheap! Some sell them even for $40, so look around before you buy - you won't need high quality shielded cables for our purposes!

You got the idea with the multimeter - it also measures voltage, ampere and resistance (? Is it right? well, at least how big an resistor is) and most of them can beep if a circuit you measure is closed, that's what makes them helpful for this cable-issue.

I even wanted more than 50 pins, there are some SCSI-extensions outthere that have more, but they don't have these very nice big centronics plug that is so easy to use.



enemyace

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Re: using parallel serial cables as quick connects
« Reply #5 on: May 10, 2002, 12:36:29 pm »
Do they make a 2 or 3 way switch for the centronics plugs like they do for db25 cables?
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 pm by 1026619200 »

Carsten Carlos

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Re: using parallel serial cables as quick connects
« Reply #6 on: May 10, 2002, 12:42:32 pm »
Quote
Do they make a 2 or 3 way switch for the centronics plugs like they do for db25 cables?

I only saw switches for the smaller centronics of the printerports, although I don't think they switch all cables, 'cause this isn't necessary for switching printers.
For SCSI itself, you'll never see that. SCSI is an open system with at least 8 devices supported, so there isn't much reason to get a switch between, and with these high data-rates it would be hard to make it still reliable.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 pm by 1026619200 »