Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!purdue!haven!mimsy!dtoa3!dtix!curt
From: curt@dtix.dt.navy.mil (Welch)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems
Subject: Re: New "Alternate Connector For Use With ANSI/EIA-232-D"
Message-ID: <125@dtoa3.dt.navy.mil>
Date: 18 Sep 89 13:42:37 GMT
References: <870.251007A2@zswamp.fidonet.org> <8539@hoptoad.uucp>
Sender: news@dtoa3.dt.navy.mil
Reply-To: curt@dtix.dt.navy.mil (Curt Welch)
Organization: David Taylor Research Center, Bethesda, MD
Lines: 26

In article <8539@hoptoad.uucp> gnu@hoptoad.uucp (John Gilmore) writes:
>There should be no male/female connectors; any connector should
>fit into any other one.  Ideally you could plug it in with a 180 degree
>rotation to cross the lines (I'm Here <-> You're Here and etc).  That way
>you can not only plug two devices together with a single cable, but you
>can also extend the length by plugging N cables together -- and if it
>doesn't work, twist any connector by 180 degrees and plug things back
>together; now it should work.  In other words, if you insert the plug
>one way, you get straight-thru; the other way you get everything swapped.
>For this there would have to be two pins of GND and two of power, but
>that is probably a good idea anyway.

If there was one type of connector with an equal number of male and
female pins that could plug into itself, then you wouldn't need to
twist it 180 degrees.  All output signals would be connected to one
gender, and all input signals would be connected to the other.  There
would only be one type of cable that could be used to connect any two
devices together.  It would cross connect the male pins from one end to
the female pins on the other.  With this type of cable, you could also
plug multiple cables together to extend the length (still without needing
to twist it 180 degrees).

I've wanted RS-232 type devices to be wired like this for over 10 years.

Curt Welch
curt@dtix.dt.navy.mil