Hi!
I have one HW Q:
I want to do "serial switcher" - 'cause I don't want to plug and unplug when I need the serial cable...
I want to do a switcher, but don't know how.
Serial cable has 6 pins and I don't know how to connect and disconnect 6 wires with one switcher.
Or it can be done only with dis/connect ATN?
If yes, will be device beyond switcher "invisible" or better "not connected"?
In attachment is image how I want to do it...
Thank you all for every help.
Miro
Funny that you mention this, as I'm after the same thing for joysticks. I actually started to build one based upon some simple AND gate IC's. I had a single wire to work in a mock up and then had a daughter so I ran outta time! :) IN short I was going to use the ICs attached to a 3 way toggle for a Joy 1/2 toggle. The same concept I'm sure would work with the serial bus though it would be quite unwieldly using the AND IC's I was using. Prob something that could be adapted using an arduino or something of the sort. I wanted to stay away from mechanical rotary switches, though it probably wouldnt hurt with an ON-OFF-ON 3 way rocker.
Hi!
This I did with DIP8 switcher - DIP6 was not possible to get...
Look at attachment.
Miro
so how is this wired internally??
Just look for 'serial switch box' on the eBays. They'll work for switching joystick ports. I own two of these nifty 4-pushbutton models:
(http://thumbs4.ebaystatic.com/m/mBN3Ek9-f-FjnQXbm3iDdqQ/80.jpg)
The ones I bought switch all 7 lines, though YMMV. You can hook them up with serial cables or joystick extension cables (much cheaper).
HOWEVER I strongly suggest you don't switch the ports 'hot'. You will most likely blow a CIA or two that way. (It might be okay if you've added diode protection, though.)
Interesting, So I wired up four connectors on a breadboard and it does indeed seem that all you need to do is drop the ATN line and the device goes away... I'm gonna play with getting a PCB together that could have a number of IEC sockets with a single switch per socket to drop the ATN. It would be like a 1 to 4 type setup, as the lines need to be run in parallel to keep from dropping off a while segment. Fun, simple little project.... Step 2 would be to use MiniDIN... then just a simple adapter makes for a much smaller unit, or even MiniDIN to DIN cables?
If this is not the person who conversed with me Friday night, note that someone is working on a 4 port serial switcher PCB. Seems we should just do this once.
Jim
Quote from: MIRKOSOFT on December 19, 2009, 02:08 AM
Hi!
I have one HW Q:
I want to do "serial switcher" - 'cause I don't want to plug and unplug when I need the serial cable...
I want to do a switcher, but don't know how.
Serial cable has 6 pins and I don't know how to connect and disconnect 6 wires with one switcher.
Or it can be done only with dis/connect ATN?
If yes, will be device beyond switcher "invisible" or better "not connected"?
In attachment is image how I want to do it...
Thank you all for every help.
Miro
I have a switch on the ATN line. It is a SPST ON-OFF-ON switch. I connected all wires to each other. The ATN wire I broke off and have the middle of the SPST switch going to the commodore wire. Then I attached each end to the ATN wire, which goes to to the equipments. Works well. I have it in my Commodore 64 Arcade machine that switches it from the 1541 to the uIEC.
I built a switchbox to allow two computers to access drives and printers. See:
http://www.alanger.net/comm/index.html (http://www.alanger.net/comm/index.html) and scroll down to Serial Switch Box.
Also see the Miscellaneous Commodore Projects (http://www.alanger.net/comm/misc/index.html); bottom of the page; for info on the ATN line.
HTH,
Al
That was me Jim. Plan on getting back on it when I'm back in town Monday!