You may want to connect other serial devices to your Indy workstation. In this appendix you'll find information on which serial cables you can use with your workstation.
To use serial printers and dumb terminals, use a 3-wired standard Macintosh® (Plus, SE, or II) to Imagewriter®I cable. (Note that the Imagewriter II cable does not work). The cable connector pin assignments for this cable are shown in Table B-1.
Table B-1. Cable Connector Pinout Assignments for the Printer/Dumb Terminal Serial Cable
Signal Description | Pin Number | Pin Number |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | N/C |
| 2 | N/C |
TXD | 3 | 3 |
GND | 4 | 7 |
RXD | 5 | 2 |
| 6 | N/C |
| 7 | N/C |
GND | 8 | 7 |
 | Note: For a 3-wire cable and no hardware flow control modem, you must use the /dev/ttyd* command devices in the configuration files. For more detailed information, see the serial man page. To access the man page, place the cursor in the console window and type |
man serial
Use a full-handshake (includes RTS and CTS) serial cable for a modem with RTS/CTS flow control. You can use this cable for all serial devices except terminals and serial printers (any application that doesn't need RTS flow control). For example, you can use this cable for a 3-wire application. This cable can be used with a null modem adapter for serial printers and dumb terminals. You can purchase the full-handshake serial cable from Silicon Graphics or your local service provider.
| Note: You cannot use a standard Macintosh serial cable. The Macintosh cable does not have the correct pinout for full flow control. |
The cable connector pin assignments for this cable are shown in
Table B-2.
Table B-2. Cable Connector Pin Assignments for a Modem Cable
Signal Description | Pin Number | Pin Number |
|---|---|---|
DTR | 1 | 20 |
CTS | 2 | 5 |
TXD | 3 | 2 |
GND | 4 | 7 |
RXD | 5 | 3 |
RTS | 6 | 4 |
DCD | 7 | 8 |
GND | 8 | 7 |
| Note: If you are attaching a modem with modem signals and RTS/CTS flow control, you must use the /dev/ttyf* command devices in the configuration files. For more detailed information, see the serial man page. To access this man page, place the cursor in the console window and type |
man serial
To use the devices below, you'll need a serial adapter cable supplied by Silicon Graphics.
dial and button box
dials box
digitizer tablet
Spaceball™
optical mouse
The Silicon Graphics adapter cable is used to convert the serial cable that came with the device to a Silicon Graphics DIN-8 serial cable connector. This cable then connects to the serial connector on the back of the Indy chassis. The cable connector pinout assignments are shown in Table B-3.
Table B-3. Pinout Assignments for the Silicon Graphics Adapter Cable
Signal Description | Pin Number | Pin Number |
|---|---|---|
DTR | 1 | 9 |
CTS | 2 | 5 |
TXD | 3 | 2 |
GND | 4 | 7 |
RXD | 5 | 3 |
RTS | 6 | 4 |
DCD | 7 | 8 |
GND | 8 | 7 |
| N/C | 6 |
| N/C | 1 |
To use a serial device designed for use with personal computers using a DB-9 connector, you'll need a PC adapter cable. To obtain the cable, contact your local service provider. This adapter cable is used to convert from the PC's DB-9 pinout to the Indy workstation's DIN-8 pinout.
The cable connector pinout assignments for the PC adapter cable are shown in Table B-4.
Table B-4. Cable Connector Pin Assignments for the PC Adapter Cable
Signal description | Pin Number | Pin Number |
|---|---|---|
DTR | 1 | 4 |
CTS | 2 | 8 |
TXD | 3 | 3 |
GND | 4 | 5 |
RXD | 5 | 2 |
RTS | 6 | 7 |
DCD | 7 | 1 |
DSR | 8 | 6 |
| N/C | 9 |