Wondering what the use is for a wire I found

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
B

bzand

Reputable
Jul 10, 2015
185
0
4,690
I was looking through some boxes at my grandmothers and found a cable that has a male serial on one end a 3.5mm male on the other, in a box with various rca and coax cables. At a quick glance I thought it was a vga plug and figured it was used for something of that nature. Once I got home I relized it was a serial end. After a little reasearch, and my own judgment, I figured it was to connect a smaller device to a pc. It threw me that it had a male serial however and that would require a female to female cable in order to connect to pc. After a lead to nowere I threw it in a box and forgot about it for a while. Today, I found it and did a pin out and found only 3 pins are used(none shared), it makes sense but peaks my curiousity about why a serial end than. If anyone knows what it is for or has suggestions please let me know. Also attached are a picture of it and the pinout

851_cable.jpg



112_pinout.jpg
 
Solution
Ralston18
Will just add that it is RS-232 (Serial interface).

As has been stated, it was a popular way, pre-USB, to make connections (often proprietary) between a computer and some device.

There used to be all sorts of adapters for mixing and matching devices via DB9 and DB25 plugs. Especially for communications between modems and computers. You could even purchase cables, pins, and wires to build your own adapters or meet some custom pin out requirement.

Generally had a small box full various RS-232 related adapters, gender-changers, etc, along shells and pins to make custom pinouts.

For example...
Sort by date Sort by votes
M

maxwellmelon

Splendid
Oct 2, 2013
2,511
0
24,010
its just a serial port adapter. I have actually have one from an old ups (around the year 2000), and I'm a sure a few other basic devices used it. the audio jack end plugged into the ups. it only uses the Transmit, receive and ground pins. I think it was there way of saving money by not using a full sized serial port connector.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
B

bzand

Reputable
Jul 10, 2015
185
0
4,690


May I ask why would a ups need to connect to something.(I know nothing about ups other than they have a sort of battery in them) Also when/if you used yours how did you connect it to the computer? Did you use a female to female cable?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
M

maxwellmelon

Splendid
Oct 2, 2013
2,511
0
24,010



to tell a computer how much battery is left so the computer can shut down before the UPS battery dies. they just usb cables now but this was before USB was normal
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Ralston18

Ralston18

Titan
Moderator
Oct 11, 2014
34,892
3,323
146,290
Will just add that it is RS-232 (Serial interface).

As has been stated, it was a popular way, pre-USB, to make connections (often proprietary) between a computer and some device.

There used to be all sorts of adapters for mixing and matching devices via DB9 and DB25 plugs. Especially for communications between modems and computers. You could even purchase cables, pins, and wires to build your own adapters or meet some custom pin out requirement.

Generally had a small box full various RS-232 related adapters, gender-changers, etc, along shells and pins to make custom pinouts.

For example:

https://www.google.com/search?q=rs-232+pinouts&biw=1244&bih=723&tbs=qdr:y&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwid7JmJm5zPAhWKFx4KHRa4B3AQsAQIGw
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom