russotto@eng.umd.edu (Matthew T. Russotto) (05/22/91)
Well, maybe it's a hack, maybe it's just a big kludgey mess. It's my
AppleTalk network. It consists of one good appletalk box connected to about
10 feet of Appletalk wire left over from an installation at a business. That
is connected to another 60 or so left over feet by regular connectors/couplers.
That is connected to standard AppleTalk cables and to a second Appletalk box,
and then a third. Now things get wierd. The third Appletalk box is connected
to a appletalk wire, and a coupler. The wire attached to the coupler was made
by cutting apart a modular phone cord, and soldering the outer conductors to
broken off LED leads. The LED leads were inserted into the holes in the
coupler. The modular phone cord plugs into a wall outlet, which is connected
to another wall outlet by some 26 gauge wire. (the conductors in the cord are a kind of ribbon wound around a plastic center-- utter crap). To the back of
that wall outlet is connected two lengths of 24-gauge stranded wire, which
is inserted directly into the holes of a damaged (but repaired) Appletalk
box (also left over from that installation). The terminator in this box is
disconnected by placing a piece of paper between the contacts. (normally the
cable disconnects the terminator)
The amazing thing? Even with all the impedence mismatching, IT WORKS! And,
I found out that reversing the two wires on the Appletalk net has no effect.
--
Matthew T. Russotto russotto@eng.umd.edu russotto@wam.umd.edu
.sig under construction, like the rest of this campus.