MAKE: Noise — Discuss this article

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• Soldering tips
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  I constructed my DB9 - RJ45 connectors slightly differently. I cut the orange pin very close to the metal, stripped the orange wire, and soldered it to the yellow pin (as high as possible so you can still insert the pin in the DB9 housing).
  Then I took about 2cm of thin insulated wire, stripped off a few mm on each end, soldered one end to the white pin, and the other to the orange pin that I cut off earlier. It's the same wiring diagram, you just don't have stuff floating around without insulation inside the DB9 housing (mine was plastic anyway). As long as you don't botch anything too badly, you don't need any extra pins. Got my stuff at sfcable.com. Costs a little more, but it's a good site for cables, and you can pick up some gender changers while you're at it.

  Posted by acidrain69 on January 13, 2007 at 16:15:38 Pacific Time

• altoids tin
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  Oh, one more thing. If you plug the short crossover into one of your DB9 connectors, you can fit the 2 DB9 adapters, a coupler, the crossover, and the loopback inside of every Maker's favorite container, the altoids tin.
  
  Just put the DB9+crossover along the bottom of the tin, then the loopback, followed by the other DB9 (facing the other way from the 1st DB9 so the screw posts can sit over each other), then the coupler.

  Posted by acidrain69 on January 13, 2007 at 16:25:51 Pacific Time

• Soldering tips
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  nevermind, sfcable.com is $.05 cheaper, and you can get black or grey.

  Posted by acidrain69 on January 13, 2007 at 16:18:59 Pacific Time

• Home Depot
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  As a recent Home Depot employee, I'd like to chime in regarding patronizing said retailer. Just two tidbits; one my immediate boss was so poorly paid that his children were on Medicaid, so as a taxpayer I was subsidising healthcare costs for Home Depot. Two, the CEO made 1,700 times as much as I did. Can another human possibly do any business function 1700 times better than an employee who was employee of the month his first full month on the job????

  Posted by Pithaughn on March 27, 2006 at 11:13:43 Pacific Time

• finding some of the parts in the UK
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  Hmm... confused now. The RJ45 female - DB9 male adaptor I've got matches the one in the photos on the website. So perhaps you do want the one advertised as RJ45 to DB9 female on the datalink website. Just be careful that you order the right one to match your hardware unless you want to buy a DB9 gender changer too.

  Posted by adrianb on February 04, 2006 at 12:18:24 Pacific Time

• finding some of the parts in the UK
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  I found RJ45 to DB9 modular adaptors from http://www.datalinkcabling.co.uk, but make sure you order the "RJ45 to 9 way D Male adaptor" - the gender listed is that of the port you are plugging the adaptor in to!
  The spare crimp pins were only hard to find because it was hard to tell what they are called. Maplins (http://www.maplin.co.uk) had these available in the shop in the computer connectors area, listed as "10 pack D Type plug shell".

  Posted by adrianb on February 04, 2006 at 10:14:04 Pacific Time

• This works great!
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  Thanks for the great story. I wasn't going to do the project and then I was at a new site and needed null modem cable for 3com switches. You should have seen the dumb looks I got at every computer store, in New York City no less.
  
  Your directions are great but I had some trouble with the RJ45 coupler I have. It is not straight trough. It is pinned like a Cisco rollover cable, 1 to 8, 2 to 7, etc. Now I have one cable for my Nortel ARN, Bay 450, Nortel 8100, Cisco, and Contivity VPN. Probably much more that I don't even know.
  
  Thanks Again!
  
  John
  
  

  Posted by procisco on August 26, 2005 at 06:12:42 Pacific Time

• Loopback plug
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  Great article! Using it to replace several cables I used to carry. I now just have one retractable CAT5 cable (Bonus: this secures the RJ45 tabs so they don't get break off) and all my new tiny cables (crossover and console), adapters, and connectors.
  
  I did notice one thing in your online article from your website. In the Extras section, the loopback plug does not work on newer "intelligent" ethernet ports that detect a loopback condition and shut down the port. For example, this didn't work when I plugged it into a ThinkPad ethernet port or into a newer Cisco switch port. The ThinkPad port didn't light up at all and never showed "Enabled". The Cisco switch port went green for a split second and then went into an "err-disable" state according to the "show int fa 0/1" command. I know the pinouts are correct because I checked the plug (two of them, in fact) on an old hub and it lit-up like a Christmas tree.
  
  The Cisco switch is apparently doing this to prevent spanning-tree loops. Not sure why the ThinkPad ethernet port never worked. I know it works; I plugged in a CAT5 cable from it to the Cisco switch and it enabled/lit-up fine.
  
  Maybe our networking devices are getting too smart for us?
  
  Joel Barrett
  

  Posted by joelbarrett on August 23, 2005 at 07:13:30 Pacific Time

• Crossover layout
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  I am confused by the crossover pin out used for this article. I can not get it to work.
  make crossover 1a.
  
  
  
  1. white/orange
  
  
  2. orange
  
  
  3. white/green
  
  
  4. blue
  
  
  5. white/blue
  
  
  6. green
  
  
  7. white/brown
  
  
  8. brown
  
  
  
  make crossover 1b.
  
  
  
  1. white/green
  
  
  2. green
  
  
  3. white/orange
  
  
  4. white/brown
  
  
  5. brown
  
  
  6. orange
  
  
  7. blue
  
  
  8. white/blue
  
  
  
  
  But I can get this to work. see link.
  http://www.danpex.com/faqs/cat5-conf.htm
  
  Other crossover 1a.
  
  
  
  1. white/orange
  
  
  2. orange
  
  
  3. white/green
  
  
  4. blue
  
  
  5. white/blue
  
  
  6. green
  
  
  7. white/brown
  
  
  8. brown
  
  
  
  Other crossover 1b.
  
  
  
  1. white/green
  
  
  2. green
  
  
  3. white/orange
  
  
  4. blue
  
  
  5. white/blue
  
  
  6. orange
  
  
  7. white/brown
  
  
  8. brown
  
  
  
  
  I can find examples of both on the net. What is the difference, and why will the one in MAKE:01 not work with my switch?

  Posted by ritilan.com on March 07, 2005 at 11:52:49 Pacific Time

• Crossover layout
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  I would check your a and b. They appear to be reversed.

  Posted by hilarowg on April 01, 2005 at 20:32:58 Pacific Time

• Crossover layout
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  A normal UTP ethernet device only makes use of pins 1, 2, 3, and 6. Notice that my pinout is identical to a more typical crossover cable pinout (like the one you provided) for those four pins. Perhaps your device is doing something unusual with the remaining pins? Power over ethernet perhaps?

  Posted by mike@ossmann.com on March 07, 2005 at 12:20:30 Pacific Time

• Wire wizardry
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  While the entire premier issue is terrific , I found this to be hands down one of the best articles in the whole publication. Of course, as a network administrator I'm biased. Sure the gee-whiz cool factor of most of the projects strokes my geek ego but the sheer practicality and simplicity of this project gave me a very zen feeling. Thank you Mr. Ossmann.

  Posted by MadGeek on February 21, 2005 at 12:53:15 Pacific Time

• thanks
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  Thank you for the kind comments. There are a few extras that didn't make it into the magazine article. Check them out here if you are interested and let me know if you think up any I can add:
  
  http://www.ossmann.com/5-in-1.html

  Posted by mike@ossmann.com on February 24, 2005 at 14:06:30 Pacific Time

• me too
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  i really liked this article as well.
  
  I would love to also see a Tivo serial Cable attachment! http://www.tivohelp.com/archive/tivohelp.swiki.net/35
  

  Posted by spy604 on March 01, 2005 at 12:05:39 Pacific Time