My experience with RS232 so far has been with RTI and a little URC where I used their RS232 cables. Now that we are Prodigy dealers, I will be using a lot more RS232 and want to know what do you guys do for cables?

Do you make your own? Buy them? Are there CL rated versions?

Please help. I have a project coming up where I need to retro a 232 cable to the display above a fireplace, for example.

We typically use something like this... [Link: pccables.com]
It makes it easy to switch from straight thru to null by changing the RJ45 end.

If you're looking for really long runs.....B&B electronics has boosters and such.

+1

We always make our own. We do this mainly because Crestron reccommends against using cables that have all pins connected. Only the neccessary pins for control of a particular device get connected. We do however sometimes test with a pre made cable and then make one with the appropriate pinout and length. The cat 5 solutions generally work well but, we have found that some samples have been wired differently and have caused some troubleshooting issues

+2

I like to make my own for sure. I like to use the crimp and poke type. The RJ45 adaptors work ok but sometimes they are a little big and also sometimes you can run into problems with color codes/standards.
And inaddition by either using the crimp and poke or solder on type db9's you leave yourself open to using more wire types not just cat5/6 or having to adapt it.
I like the MCM [Link: mcmelectronics.com]
they come in both genders
And crimp em with
[Link: mcmelectronics.com]
I love these

Also if you use these you might wanna get a pin extractor for nulling or unnulling stuff or fixing screwups

I use these too. Although for long runs or low rates I have also needed a booster.

I only use premade cables for testing. If it is in a tough environment I will use solder ends. For more stable environments we use the Cat5 adapters, I always have a bunch around...

Have you looked at a Prodigy? Serial ports are 3 wire and Pheonix connectors only. You screw the wire on to the connector. Therefore, you could use premade connectors, cut them in half and only connect the TX$, RX$ and ground with no issues. Prodigy and Adagio com ports ONLY support RS-232. Therefore pins 4 and 6 which are used in RS-422 on 2Series processors will not give any issues on Adagio and don't exist on Prodigy; nor do Prodigy or Adagio com ports support RS-485.

Alan

I use the RJ45 adapters. The colorcode in the adapter is standard Bell USOC (cn't remember if it is A or B). For cable I just make what I need using Cat5e (cat 3 would be fine). I always make the cables as standard Ethernet with standard colorcoding. If I only want 3 pins then I only connect 3 pins (I standardized on Red, Green, black) in the adapter. Absolutely get the pin removal tool for changing from straight thru to crossover and vice versa.

I just ran into a situation where the adapter was too long. In that case I mounted a standard RJ45 termination block. The termination blocks has an RJ45 jack on one side, and a slot to pass a cable on the other. Inside the block there are 8 color coded screw terminals that match the Adapter at the other end since the ethernet cable is straight through. I then attach a short commercial DB9 connector of the correct gender by clipping off one end and attaching the wires I need to the correct terminals.

I make my own ethernet cables from bulk Cat5e. Takes about 5 minutes if you have the rioght tool. Most time consuming part is untwisting the twisted pairs and laying them out in the correct order taking the waves out of each wire.

Hope that helps

Hi,

For Speedy installs the RJ45 to DB9 adaptor is great. You just need to learn how the colour sequence for pins 3, 2 and 5 - 95% of cases.
Also try and buy Female and Male versions.
then all you need is a run of terminated Cat5.

However for most reliability, I use Cat5, and buy DB9 or what ever the connector may be (e.g. 3 pin 3.5mm in some cases, or mini DIN in others etc etc..) then solder the ends. This gives the neatest solution, as I can configure the pins as needed, and its usually a small Shell that covers the connector.

This method is especially useful when you come across devices that require pins 7 & 8 to be tied together etc.. etc..