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serial to cat5... will it work?

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8 replies

by slart58

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I have a receipt printer that i want to move 160ft from it's computer. i need to know if it is possible to use a cat5 cable as an extension. whereas on one end it is a 9 pin serial using only four wires (transmit, recieve, ground,ready) into a cat5... on the other end and 160ft later the 4 wires used in cat5 are soldered into a 25 pin serial jack into the printer. any suggestions or knowledge about serial to cat5 conversion and compatability would be greatly appreciated.

8 replies

by gigelul

Hi,
I'm not sure that I understand. I think that you need a long serial cable and not a conversion from serial to CAT5 cable (CAT5 definition is used for network connectins). Of course, you can use an UTP cable to make this serial cable. If I remember correct the maximun lenght is 10m.
Read about different cables on:
http://www.hardwarebook.net/

by gigelul

Or you can use a print server device, which will convert a parallel conection to a network conection (CAT5) with max lenght 100m.

by thechas

Most serial ports don't have the signal integrity to run with that length of cable.

What you need is a short-haul modem settup.

Check out www.blackbox.com I believe that they still carry this equipment.
Then, you can find what you need for less with a little searching.

Chas

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