ji@cs.columbia.edu (John Ioannidis) (10/25/90)
Over the past eight months or so that I've owned my hp48cx, I have made various vain attempts to build a serial cable for it. Some of them involved bizarre actions, like trying to mold hotglue around four crimp-on pins and shape them with an X-Acto knife. I finally gave up, shelled out $30 to EduCALC and bought one. The thing is much better made than anything I could have made (and I'm pretty good with my hands), and I wish I had bought it right from the start. All the hours that I spent trying to make one were worth much much more than $30. I understand people's reluctance to pay $30 for a cable, but your time (let alone the network bandwidth we've wasted with this discussion) is just not worth it. /ji
frechett@boulder.Colorado.EDU (-=Runaway Daemon=-) (10/25/90)
In article <1990Oct25.041352.8140@cs.columbia.edu> ji@cs.columbia.edu (John Ioannidis) writes: >I understand people's reluctance to pay $30 for a cable, but your time >(let alone the network bandwidth we've wasted with this discussion) is >just not worth it. > >/ji I am sorry..I had to comment. And I have to say that I disagree. The 20 minutes that I spent on building my cable was worth it. I have tranferred over a meg of files over that cable and spent somewhere on the order of 2 hours logged into my UNIX account via hp -> cable -> modem... The whole thing cost me $3 to build and has served me faithfully ever since. I have gotten no transmit errors at all. There was no way in hell that I was going to buy a cable for what hp is charging, and I couldn't use the software anyway, as I don't have a PC. I am, as you put it, "good with my hands" too, but I don't beleive that what I did is beyond most people's ability. The only thing that I had going for me was that I stumbled upon some gold pins that had holes small enough to fit the pins on the hp. There is nothing special about them in any other sense and the cable is very straight forward. I did use a hot melt glue gun to build the outside of the plug (everyone should have a glue gun) up a bit, but it required no extra ordanary skill and the some thing can be done with epoxy and a bit of fine sawdust. It all seems to be a matter of getting lucky. My advice, find some pins that really do fit on the hp pins and I will tell you what you can with them to make a reasonable cable. ian -- -=Runaway Daemon=-
ram@tellabs.com (Bob Martin) (10/26/90)
In article <1990Oct25.041352.8140@cs.columbia.edu> ji@cs.columbia.edu (John Ioannidis) writes: >I understand people's reluctance to pay $30 for a cable, but your time >(let alone the network bandwidth we've wasted with this discussion) is >just not worth it. Well, I don't know what takes so long, my cable took 2 hours to build, including time to go to Radio Shack, and only cost me $10. Besides, we don't all own Macs and PCs, so the $30 cable only kit would be a real waste, because then I'd have to buy (or make) another cable to mate to that. As far as bandwidth being wasted, I learned many valuable things on the net that allowed me to make my cable so easily and cheaply. As far as I'm concerned it's all been a very good use of bandwidth. -- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Bob Martin | ram@tellabs.com ...!uunet!tellab5!ram Tellabs, Inc. |"Listen to me now, and believe me later" - Hans & Franz Lisle, IL. 60532 |"Flibble-dee Floo" - Grumpy Old Man
richard@hpfcdc.HP.COM (Richard Artz) (10/27/90)
re: HP cable costs Just some comments. When I got my 48sx, I ran down the the local electronics store and found some strange jumper-cable/adapter thing in a scrap box. I have no idea what it was, but I bought it for $5 and clipped the connector and built a cable. I felt lucky. When I wanted a second cable, I just bought one from HP, it can be ordered without a software disk. The HP cable is very nicely built, and "clicks" into place. You can even lift the 48 by the HP cable! It's shielded, and the PC version comes with a 25-to-9 adapter. 30 bucks is not really that bad, I just paid $20 for a PC/parallel cable the other day. So either build it or buy it, but remember that if you paid yourself $10/hour for labor (time = money), you may spend more on a home-brew than you think. Cheers, Richard Artz / N0LZR / 303-229-2036 / richard@hpfcww.fc.hp.com
sshankar@cs.umn.edu (Subash Shankar) (04/20/91)
What are good mail order houses for HP 48 peripherals (the serial cable in particular)? Or is there any netter looking to sell a Mac interface cable? -- Subash Shankar sshankar@umn-cs.cs.umn.edu