I just thought I would pass along this info.

When I was at Radio Shack getting the parts, I remembered the cable for my Kodak Digital Camera DC210 looks like it would work. So I bought a signal tester and sure enough the Pinouts are exact.

Maybe this may help a few of you...

Timely info,

I was just about to order a DB9 plug, when I saw your post. 10 minutes digging round in a box, and I found a spare Kodak cable.

Thanks

Tim.

I've just had a look at this again, and with my cable (DC-20) pins 6,7 and 8 are wired together (shorted at the DB9 end). I'm not sure what effect this will have, but I'm sure someone can comment. I was a bit surprised that the pin-out on Jack's site has no shorting. Years ago when I used to make up serial cables all the time, I can never remember putting anything together without any shorting at all. Can you just check the "real cable" again Jack?

Tim.

Sorry, that last post should have read pins 1,6,7 and 8.

Tim.

The shorts should not hurt anything, it certainly won't break anything as long as the other pins match up. I agree that they are often shorted.

The "shorts" are to fake out the software (usually COM port drivers, which is what Window application most often talk through) into thinking a "modem like" device is out there.

When the software sets the "RTS" (Request to Send) pin it's telling the device I have data for you and it loops back and fakes a response with "CTS" (Clear To Send) which says I'm ready. A couple other signals are faked out also like DCD (Data Carrier Detect).

For pinouts of DB9 see this site.

[Link: erols.com]

The way they talk without these hand shaking signals is to have hardware fast enough and speeds slow enough that the receiver (consumer) can always stay ahead of the sender (producer).

Re Pinouts:

I have checked for shorts as described...NO SHORTS.

Further, we have built a cable to my pinout drawing and tested it...works fine.

When connecting between PC and Pronto in ProntoEdit, there is hadshaking which occurs and checks for valid CCF in Pronto as well as confirms desire to load new.
I suspect that all communications is software flow controlled with error checking/correction. This od course is one of the right ways, right?...rather than assuming it got there..... Would one expect anything less from a design team that seems to have gotten everything else right?

The pinout drawing shows 2 signal ground wires going from the number 5 terminal of the DB-9 connector to a plug that has 4 terminals.
I asked the folks at Radio Shack and they said they don't sell a mini phone plug with 4 terminals. Where do I get one?
Or am I not understanding the drawing?

Thanks in advance for any help.

If you look at the drawing, it shows two wires from no5 terminal connected to the lower two
rings on 4 section miniplug. The analogy would be
one wire from no 5 pin, if two lower rings on
miniplug were shorted together. Or in other words,
one wire from no5 pin to lower ring of 3 section
miniplug, as indicated on diagram.

Thank you for the help Andy.
The soldering gun is heating up. In another ten minutes I'll be ready for Pronto Edit...

The four ring plug was originally specified as we needed four signals (Tx,Rx,DTR and Gnd). The final product doesn't need DTR, and the standard stereo mini-jack will work just fine.

The link runs at 115 Kbaud, and handshaking isn't usually necessary, since both ends run fast enough to keep up. But it does use software handshaking.

Useful info. Thanks helpful person !

The new drawing posted on prontoedit.com shows the left plug as a Philips OEM now to clarify, and the right plug as the generic. Sorry for any confusion the former may have caused.

I don't suppose anyone knows whether the cable for my Casio QV10a would work?
I have no idea of the pinouts.