PC Link cable required

ZeroID (Brent) · #1 10-04-2012, 07:17 PM

Anyone know where I can buy\borrow\beg\steal a PC Link Cable for a Synscan controller. I bought my setup second hand and it did not come with one and I'd like to upgrade the firmware.
Failing that does anyone have the pinouts for both ends and I can make one from leftovers at work.

ZeroID (Brent) · #2 11-04-2012, 07:04 AM

Belay that, got all the hardware at work. Found the info. I'll make up a cable.

ZeroID (Brent) · #3 15-04-2012, 06:29 PM

My eyesight ain't what it used to be. Soldering small wires is no fun anymore but made up a cable and did the update easy. Also gives me a useful PC Direct connection to play with for control.

floyd_2 (Dean) · #4 15-04-2012, 06:40 PM

Well done! I'm right with you on the eyesight vs making cables score. I pinned up a 4 wire cable into RJ12 jacks the other night and needed to get my wife to confirm that I had the wires in the right slots of the connector before I crimped it - I had no chance of being sure. Being colorblind wasn't helping matters either lol. Still, DIY saves a lot over buying pre made specialty cables.

Dean

ZeroID (Brent) · #5 16-04-2012, 10:19 AM

Cheers Dean, a bit of moral support is for us old buggas is much appreciated.

I metered mine before I plugged it in and tried it, just to be certain.
And DIY is always good, I learn something everytime, ... and save money

Now on 3.27, 3.28 beta is still a bit flaky apparently but the nice thing is I've gone from about 11,000 objects listed to over 31,000 in the database.

Poita (Peter) · #6 18-04-2012, 10:23 AM

If you could post the info up here that would be great. I need to make one as well.

ZeroID (Brent) · #7 19-04-2012, 05:53 AM

Hi Peter, cable was very easy. Only three wires to setup.
The Com port on your PC is a male pin out DB9 in a 5 over 4 pin layout.
Numbered 1 > 5 left to right on the top row.
Pin 2 is Receive Data (RXD),
Pin 3 is Transmit Data (TXD),
Pin 5 is Ground.
You need a female socket DB9 to match this. I found an old serial modem cable at work and chopped it in half.
The hand controller end is RJ11 which over here is the normal telephone to wall connector cable. Chopped the end off one of those.

The plug in the controller reads Left to Right 6 > 1, NOTE THIS !!!
1 & 6 are blank. No pins
Pin 2, outside right is TXD,
Pin 5, outside left is RXD,
3 & 4 the middle pins are ground.
Both cables will have just 3 or 4 wires.

Connect DB9 pin 2 (RXD) to RJ11 pin 2 (TXD)
Connect DB9 pin 3 (TXD) to RJ11 pin 5 (RXD)
Connect DB9 pin 5 to RJ11 Pins 3 & 4. (GND)

I just solder joined the wires at the cut off ends and taped it. Not going to be any strain on the cable. Gave me a cable about 1.5 meters long, useful.
If you need pictures to assist in identifying the pinouts the controller handboook has the RJ11 layout and google found me a pic of the DB9 pinout.
I've got a pdf download of the controller handbook but it's too big to attach but you can get that from the SynScan website.

Poita (Peter) · #8 19-05-2012, 03:33 PM

A belated thanks is in order.
I made a cable to those specs and it worked a treat.

Cheers!

acropolite (Phil) · #9 19-05-2012, 11:01 PM

Here's something that may suit, use a standard cat 5 patch lead and RJ adapter pinout in this post, better buzz it out when finished as I haven't confirmed that it's correct, but I have made quite a few up over the years.

ZeroID (Brent) · #10 21-05-2012, 08:32 AM

Cheers Peter, glad it all worked.

Phil, Cat 5 patch lead is the bigger RJ45 plug, not RJ11, 8 pin width. RJ11 is 6 pin as per ST4 configuration and our phone leads over here.

acropolite (Phil) · #11 26-05-2012, 05:18 PM

Sorry Brent, I posted the cable for the Eq6 to synscan, not the PC to handbox.

ZeroID (Brent) · #12 28-05-2012, 06:35 AM

Cool as, just didn't want anyone getting confused. It's a big enough mess of wires and connections already !!

bfonseka (Buddhi) · #13 09-06-2012, 01:44 PM

Thanks ZeroID - I had the original cable, but it didn't work. However the one I made does. It appears to need both pins 3 and 4 grounded. I have successfully updated the firmware to 3.28 beta with the polar re-alignment feature. I have EQMOD and Alignmaster which work, but this could be a useful backup.

ZeroID (Brent) · #14 11-06-2012, 11:47 AM

3.28 beta, you're a brave man. I stuck with 3.27 as I didn't think I was clever enough to post useful bug reports. I got enough problems just getting it to all work together. When 3.28 goes final I will upgrade again for the extras.
Interesting about the 2 pin earth requirement, might explain other peoples problems with cabling and connections previously.