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COM ports and the i-Opener RS232 mod board

New Message COM ports and the i-Opener RS232 mod board (modified 0 times) BigDog

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I need help from some of the folks who traced out the pinouts for the i-Opener;
I just got the RS232 board from Jack at BadFlash (Very FAST delivery, Thanks) and using a 16 pin male to female ribbon cable to connect the card to the modem socket CN13 I have now a RS232 COM1. The 16 pin cable is necessary since the R12 telephone and USB ports block the end of the RS232 board and the 16 pin cable I made has the pairs reversed like the IDE cable since when you add the ribbon cable the pairs are switched if you attempt to connect it straight through and of course on one end has a male header , with the other having a female end to match the RS232 mod board.
Now what I have a problem with is that I must have been drinking when I claimed some time ago that the CN5 10 pin header on the GCT was a com port that matched at least on voltage & ground pin, this not true.
CN5 looks like this:
1 - ?
2 - +5 volt (4.93v)
3 - ?
4 - ?
5 - ?
6 - ?
7 - Ground
8 - ?
9 - ?
10 - ?
All the possible pins are there for a possible COM2 port, BUT the interesting thing is that when I hook Badflash's RS232 board to that header and power on, the unit boots but the keyboard will not respond. This is likely a fluke, not then I had the idea that CN5 might be keyboard/PS2 port???
What's the best to figure out the 8 undentified pins on CN5 and assuming it's COM2 to indentify signels like RTS DTR SDR ?

10-07-2001 12:24:00

New Message RE:COM ports and the i-Opener RS232 mod board (modified 0 times) mrgoodbar

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You brought up something interesting, and something I wasn't willing to put that much effort into, which is to hook up a max232 and or mc1489 (both used for com ports). I did look all over the gctp for these chips but never saw them, i suppose thats all they need to get com ports up..? Dunno, dont have the patience to try all that.

10-08-2001 19:10:30

New Message RE:COM ports and the i-Opener RS232 mod board (modified 0 times) BigDog

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Well I am a little stubborn, I have almost gave on on the bios entry (I do have a chip to get to Badflash) so I started on a new campain with getting two functional RS232 ports out of a GCT that refuses to find the IDE attached hard drive but boots just fine to MSDOS on the compactflash (can you say emu?).
I am making progress, as stated in the first post, the CN13 header is the same as the i-Opener CN13 com1/modem header and by removing the ALi controller off the PCB (Can you say "Very hot" heat gun?) I can now say that CN5 is COM2, I have traced two addtional com lines using the tech doc I got from ALI
CN5
1 - RI
2 - +5 volt
3 - ?
4 - ?
5 - ?
6 - ?
7 - Ground
8 - DTR
9 - ?
10 - ?

Only six more lines to go......

10-08-2001 20:00:16

New Message RE:COM ports and the i-Opener RS232 mod board (modified 0 times) codeman

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this is what i got for cn5
1 ri
2 vcc
3 dcd
4 rx
5 dsr
6 tx
7 gnd
8 dtr
9 cts
10 rts

also ps2/kb and mouse are on cn15 but you have to add rn33 over u27 added.
hey BigDog could you email me that ali datasheet ?? codeman@linux-hacker.net
codeman

10-08-2001 21:22:36

New Message RE:COM ports and the i-Opener RS232 mod board (modified 0 times) *SF*

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Just half of a thought? Find a Comm Port Monitoring program.
Then Grounding or putting 5 volts to a pin would change the state of one of the signals
you are monitoring & then tell You which pin is which signal.
I would use a resistor in series to Ground or 5 volts. Good Luck, * StarFish *

10-08-2001 22:23:11

New Message RE:COM ports and the i-Opener RS232 mod board (modified 0 times) BigDog

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Thanks Codeman!
I tried to mail the data sheets earlier today but they got rejected for being too large, they are split up in 3 sections so I will try again just with the main one first.
I'm going to make a 10pin header cable to match up to th i-Opener RS232 board from your CN5 pinouts and see what happens....

10-09-2001 17:05:02

New Message RE:COM ports and the i-Opener RS232 mod board (modified 0 times) BigDog

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Your pinouts are correct Codeman, I made a "crossover" cable to connect the lines to COM2 TTL input port of the BadFlash i-Opener RS232 board according to the pinouts descriptions I found in the i-Opener section for the COM2 port on the i-Opener.
Booted to DOS and ran Checkit diag with loopback plug and both COM1 and COM2 test succesfully !!
Here is the cable cross over description which worked for me:
BadFlash
GCT RS232 board
1 - 4
2 - 10
3 - 6
4 - 2
5 - 8
6 - 1
7 - 9
8 - 3
9 - 7
10 - 5
I tried crimping the crossed over lines to a 10pin IDC header similer to how I have been making the the GCT/IO IDE cables, but after two attempts I couldn't get the 10 lines to stay straight enough to crimp down and not have one line shorting out in the line next to it. Instead I ended up cutting and soldering two cables with headers receptables crimpedi on their ends and makeing the cross overs in the middle of the cable assembly, I placed small heat shrink tubes on each of the 10 line before soldering to cover everything up after I was done soldering. Looks fairly good.
Thanks for the help Codeman YOU ARE THE MAN!

Now I just gotta find something to do with a small fast computer with a built in display and wireless keyboard that boots up to MSDOS with working two RS232 com ports, Mhmmm... Got any ideas ?? :~) I re-sent the first of three sections of the data sheets, your mail server rejected it the first time with all three sections because it was too big.

10-09-2001 21:12:40

New Message RE:COM ports and the i-Opener RS232 mod board (modified 0 times) BigDog

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My GCT is a DSS~Emu box! The RS232 ports are working like a charm. The only other issue for what I am using it for is the screen, I may install a switch to turn off the back light as even with the contrast turned down it's a little annoying. The keyboard being wireless is nice. The only other thing I tried to find is a DOS screen saver that would allow something like a clock display or even display pictures at random when there isn't any keyboard activity, I may just opt for the switch to turn the back light off.
I mounted the RS232 board flat against the mainboard were the modem was with double sided tape, and with a little modification the 2 external serial ports installed in the center of the back of the case and cut out the back top corner so that the CF card can be removed without takeing the uit apart. If I have time today I will get some pic's out of the install and the nature of the cables you need to connect the board.

10-14-2001 09:24:17

New Message RE:COM ports and the i-Opener RS232 mod board (modified 0 times) Sbmocp

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BigDog--
So, help me understand if you would...
I want to add one COM port to my touchpad. Can I remove the modem, then plug into the modem socket and tap into COM1? Or, would I have to remove the controller chip as you did? Any help greatly appreciated...

01-14-2002 05:20:31

New Message RE:COM ports and the i-Opener RS232 mod board (modified 0 times) BigDog

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If you need just one RS232, use the com2 port and then you can keep your modem, If you are using the the Badflash RS232 board then things might get a little tight on space. I removed the modem since I wanted two external rs232 ports.

01-14-2002 05:36:21

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