serial cable fun

This is mostly just so that (1) I can find this again later, if I need it, and (2) if anyone else needs it (because it really seemed to not be anywhere in Google).

Anyway, the pinout for an Actis console (it's an RS-232 serial port, but uses an RJ-45 connector):

RJ45 pin / signal
1. RTS - ready to send
2. DTR(?) - data terminal ready
3. SGND - signal ground
4. TXD - transmit data
5. RXD - receive data
6. DCD(?) - data carrier detect
7. DSR(?) - data send ready
8. CTS - clear to send

2, 6, and 7 are guesses, as the cable I cannibalized didn't have those wires in the first place.

(Well, to be honest, pretty much everything other than 4 and 5 is a guess. The overall layout is borrowed from the RocketPort serial port concentrators; whether or not there's anything more than RxD and TxD even connected is iffy, as consoles often don't bother with flow control at all. But at least I'm getting data from the port, and that's more info than I was able to find in Google.)

Speaking of which, I suspect that I could/should swap RXD/TXD and RTS/CTS; my current connection looks like this:

a. Actis board (CSBX-3545A)
b. hacked cable (RJ-45 to DB-25M)
c. null modem (DB-25F to DB-25M)
d. gender bender (DB-25F to DB-25F)
e. DB25-DB9 converter (M to F)
f. USB serial dongle (DB-9M to USB-A)

if I had a spare "whatever to DB-9F" cable, I could have cut out most of that. In this case, though, I had an old macintosh mini-DIN to DB-25M serial cable, so it got the chop. And of course I had an RJ-45 crimper and extra plugs handy -- doesn't everyone? :)