Re: Getting a IIgs to play nice with a Mac

[dempson@actrix.gen.nz (David Empson)]

William Sidebottom <wmsidebottom@bigpond.com> wrote:

> if you get a straight through cable like the one that goes between a 
> imagewriter II & a mac plus, this should let you use appletalk, because it
> works between 2 mac plus's

That's actually a crossover cable. The only Mini-Din-8 serial cables
that are straight through should be extender cables.

There may be some obscure devices which have a reversed pinout, but
Apple sensibly chose to use the same pinout for the Mini-Din-8 serial
connector in all their major products, resulting in a single cable
standard.

Yes, it will work between a IIgs and Mac. I have exactly that setup
between my IIgs and PowerMac 8600.

Some third party devices which support AppleTalk might not work with a
directly connected serial cable (I think this might affect some HP
printers). In this case you need real AppleTalk cabling, with drop boxes
and isolated connections (or a third party equivalent, such as
PhoneNet).

> <aiiadict@gmail.com> wrote in message 
> 1173941555.825109.109480@e1g2000hsg.googlegroups.com">news:1173941555.825109.109480@e1g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...
> > On Mar 14, 11:30 pm, Tristan Mumford <xtristan.xmumf...@xgmail.xcom>
> > wrote:
> >> I'm using a couple of apple serial to serial adaptors. I'm doing it
> >> because I don't have an apple to apple cable. Would this be the problem?
> >
> > good chance...

Very good chance. A pair of Mini-Din-8 to DE-9 or DB-25 adapters would
only work together if you used a crossover serial cable between them.

AppleTalk with a "null modem" cable only requires the data lines and
ground.

If you use a Mini-Din-8 to Serial adapter you are also clobbering half
the balanced serial signal (the RX+ input is grounded and the TX+ output
is not connected) but it will probably work as long as you end up with
the ground lines connected and Tx/Rx crossed over.

-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz