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- RS232.1
-
- Hello All
- Not all serial cards are alike. We have found out that there are some
- cards that want to support IRQ3 and IRQ4 so badly that even the gold
- fingers for the other IRQ lines are MISSING. To make it easy for you,
- make sure if you can, that you buy a com board that has all the fingers
- on both sides.
- If you have one that doesnt, all is not lost. After talking to technicians
- and Mike WA8BXN, there is another way.
- Here it is:
-
- You can use same IRQ lines (share them amoungst devices) as long as:
- 1) They have different addresses
- 2) You modify the com board by placing a diode in series with the IRQ
- line.
-
- Theory:
- For example, if you run com1 on 3F8 IRQ4 and want to run com3
- on 3e8 IRQ4, this is what happens.
- Under no Interrupt requests, the com board keeps the IRQ4 line
- of the pc buss socket LOW.
- If com1 gets the interrupt, it tries to raise the IRQ4 line high,
- but since you have another com board that is on com3 with the same
- IRQ line (which it is holding low since it has no interrupt), the
- IRQ from com1 will never be seen.
- You must isolate both IRQ lines via cutting the traces leading
- to the IRQ4 line on BOTH com boards and inserting a diode in series
- with the foilcut in both boards. The positive end of the diode points
- in towards the com board and the cathode points towards the pc buss.
-
- Here is a list of pin connections. Pick what ever pin is applicable to
- your computer as per free IRQ lines you may wish to use.
-
-
- Pin: IRQ:
- ---- ----
- B4 2
- B25 3
- B24 4
- B23 5
- B22 6
- B21 7
-
- The B side of the connector is the FOIL or BOTTOM of the 2port com board.
- The A side has the components on it.
- CONTINUED IN FILE RS232.2
-