RS-232 line identifier

[BOKA]

Hello, all.

I was wondering if there is such a device.

Here is what I need it to do: say I have several black boxes, each has 4 wires sticking out. Wires are not labelled and they are all the same color. I need a device to which I can connect these 4 wires and it will tell me - this one is Tx, this one is Rx, this one is DSR, etc.

Thx.

 

[SYQUEST]

I'm not aware of a device that will actually tell which lead is which, but there are several companies, Datatran Corp for instance, that make test devices that show what the line status is for EIA-232 and 422, etc serial interfaces. If you can't identify the blackbox you will probably have to circuit trace the thing by making a schematic manually. Or you could try different combinations of the four leads and hope to figure something out with the help of test equipment.


Hope this helps!

....JIM....

 

[CBasicAsslember]

Black boxes? Assuming that these wires are RS232, can you have the black box send some data?

 

[BOKA]

Thanks, all.
That is exactly the process so far - hook them up, make them send data, see if connection is working.
It just takes time to make them send data and it is 16 combinations per box (we know which 4 wires we have, just do not know which wire is which).
I was hoping to cut the time...

 

[CBasicAsslember]

Set up a computer running a terminal program (hyperterminal) with flow control turned off. The easiest thing to do is find out which is transmit, which only requires ground and transmit. You should be able to go through all 4 wires pretty quickly leaving only 3 unknowns.

 

[BOKA]

Black box is the holdup - takes some time for it to start transmitting.

 

[DTSMAN]

Can you open the black boxes and see if where they solder to the board, and if those points are labeled? If not, the circut board may have a model number on it that a web search may be helpful.

Bo

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