On Wed, 14 Jan 1998, David Brownlee wrote:

> 	I now have a VT420, with the same connector on the back as the
> 	VS3100. Could anyone confirm what cable/settings I need to get
> 	this to work? I've tried using the rj11 cable that Brian lent
> 	to me for the VT240 (when I thought that worked :), but no joy.
> 
> 	I'm assuming 9600, 8N1, no modem control, and I've tried the
> 	switch next to the serial port both up and down (which should it
> 	be?). Given the leds on the back of the machine seem to run
> 	through some selftest pattern OK I'm assuming I just need to get
> 	the cable correct... Any help greatly appreciated!

This one should be extremely easy.  Here's what I just tested and verified
here:  Take a standard RJ-11 phone cord with four wires or an RJ-12 with 6
wires and cut the plastic latches off the connectors at both ends of the
cord.  A big sharp kitchen knife is great for this.  Basically I set the
knife endge in the crook of the latch and lean on the top of the knife
rocking it a little until the latch sheers off.  This is to get around the
different keying of the RJ-11/12 connectors vs the MMJ ones. Do not cut
your fingers off.


ASCII diagram to clarify:

Cable plug heads viewed from above. (with conductors exposed and facing
towards you.)

        #######
      ###########   
    ####       ####  <-- plastic phone cord
   ####         ####
   ####         ####
+--####--+   +--####--+
|  ####  |   |  ####  |        Y -> Yellow wire
|  YGRB  |   |  BRGY  |        G -> Green wire
|  ||||  |   |  ||||  |        R -> Red wire
|__||||__|   |__||||__|        B -> Black wire
    ^            ^
    |            |
   Exposed conductors

The plug heads when held next to eachother as shown above will be wired
such that they've got a mirrored symmetry.  The wire colors from right to
left on one plug follow yellow, green, red, black while on the second read
in reverse: black, red, green, yellow.  Of course the colors don't matter
just as long as the mirrored symmetry is there.  The above shows a 4-wire
connector.  It works the same for a 6-wire, just more wires. :-) 

Then the switch on the VS3100 needs to be set in the up position.  As 
noted the settings are 9600, 8N1 and no modem control.  The cable plugs
into the printer port on the VAXstation and into the #1 port on the VT420.

-brian.
---
Brian "JARAI" Chase | http://world.std.com/~bdc/ | VAXZilla LIVES!!!