- VCF South West - June 14 - 16, Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center at University of Texas at Dallas
- VCF West - Aug 2 - 3, Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA
- VCF Midwest - Sept 7 - 8 2024, Schaumburg, IL
- VCF SoCal - Mid February 2025, Location TBD, Southern CA
- VCF East - April 2025, Infoage Museum, Wall NJ
-
Please review our updated Terms and Rules here
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
Serial or parallel?
- Thread starter marcoguy
- Start date
Turbo10
Member
Could you describe the connections on each end?
Do you mean it's DB25 female on one end and DB25 male on the other?
Or is it DB25 female on one end and Centronics-style (parallel printer) edge connector on the other?
Do you mean it's DB25 female on one end and DB25 male on the other?
Or is it DB25 female on one end and Centronics-style (parallel printer) edge connector on the other?
GottaLottaStuff
Veteran Member
I have some of these. Usually they were used as printer extension cables or to a mechanical switch to share one printer with two computers or two printers with one computer.
krebizfan
Veteran Member
It is DB25 female/male.
That is an extension cable which can in most cases be used either for a parallel or serial port connection. Same cable, just make sure that both sets of ports that are connected to the extender are of the same type. Don't join a parallel port to a serial port.
Does the cable have any text written on it? Some similar looking cables can have wires that do not pass through completely on the same pins as one would expect.
While the Apple external SCSI uses the same 25pin connector, I would recommend not trying to use one of these extenders with external SCSI devices. Long cabling and often poorly built connectors led to signal loss which becomes much more noticeable with a SCSI hard disk.
krebizfan
Veteran Member
Another odd cord, 9 pin serial to a smaller version of a speaker cable. Any info?
You might want to provide a picture of that adapter. I can think of several different cables similar to what you describe including power adapters that leech off a serial port, controls for some forms of projectors, and some more exotic forms.
GottaLottaStuff
Veteran Member
"9 pin serial to a smaller version of a speaker cable"
Could be serial cable for a digital camera or gps unit.
Could be serial cable for a digital camera or gps unit.
DOS lives on!!
Veteran Member
I actually have one of these cables too. I don't have a need for it, but I'd suspect it would be used to transfer data to and from portable devices (cameras, PDAs, GPSs).
angel_grig
Experienced Member
It is DB25 female/male.
You can check how the 2 ends connect to each other with a multimeter in order to find what cable this is.