MicroVAX 3100 Questions.

From: Scott Stevens <chenmel_at_earthlink.net>
Date: Sun Dec 5 16:48:08 2004

On Sun, 5 Dec 2004 13:01:29 -0500, Pat wrote:

>On Sunday 05 December 2004 06:43, Pete Turnbull wrote:
>> Better than hacking RJ45s would be to hack RJ11 (6P/6C) plugs.
>> They're very common, about a quarter of the price of MMJs, and there
>> are low-cost crimp tools available.
>
>Agreed, the only difference between an RJ12/RJ11 and MMJ is the tab
>location, which can be easily sliced off (though that usually makes for
>a loose fitting connector).
>
>> For anyone in the UK who needs *a few*, I believe I still have a box
>> of adapter cables for Emulex terminal servers. These are short
>> (about 8-10 inches) flat cables with an MMJ on one end and an RJ45 on
>> the other. You can have a few for the cost of postage.
>
>And if anyone in the US wants one, I can do up to, say, 25ft MMJ->MMJ or
>MMJ->RJ(12/45) cables for $5 + shipping. I had a few takers last time
>I did this, and they seemed to be happy with my handiwork. : )
>

If you made something like this, would the RJ-45 end plug into one of
the serial adaptors that I got from the back of a rackmount US
Robotics modem box? It's one of those plugs that adapts from RJ-45
jack to a DB-25 male plug.

If so, it would be great to get one of those. I'd do it myself, but I
literally have to look across a room completely stuffed with boxes of
junk to see my electronics bench. I really _really_ need to clean
things up.

I'm way out of it as far as serial interfaces and interface standards,
cable pinouts, etc. I null-modem into Sun boxes to install Solaris
and NetBSD over a serial console, and talk to my HP 95LX over a little
serial cable, but it's been ages since I tackled it much further. But
in the last month I've acquired two serial-console only machines.
(the MicroVAX, and an Altos 586 Xenix box (8086 Xenix in 512K of
RAM)). I'm so out of it as far as serial goes that I struggled for
half a day with the serial interface to the Altos box before I
realized 'hey, I should NOT be using a Null-modem cable to connect a
Linux box running Minicom to the Altos console. This is the REAL
THING, not terminal-to-terminal.' Could be it's time to design and
build up a 'serial switchbox/crossbar/multiplexer.' That would be a
cool app for a mid-sized PIC controller and some of those 6402s I have
lying around. Hmmm... A 'serial hub' to connect it all together...

I'm interested in one of those cables, Pat. To accelerate my getting
that MicroVAX online. I located a SCSI CDROM for it yesterday from my
hoard that has jumpers on the back labeled 'parity' and 'block size'
so I think it's all coming together.

Scott
Received on Sun Dec 05 2004 - 16:48:08 GMT