Serial switcher

[MIRKOSOFT]

Hi!

I have one HW Q:

I want to do "serial switcher" - 'cause I don't want to plug and unplug when I need the serial cable...

I want to do a switcher, but don't know how.
Serial cable has 6 pins and I don't know how to connect and disconnect 6 wires with one switcher.
Or it can be done only with dis/connect ATN?
If yes, will be device beyond switcher "invisible" or better "not connected"?

In attachment is image how I want to do it...

Thank you all for every help.

Miro

[maraud]

Funny that you mention this, as I'm after the same thing for joysticks.  I actually started to build one based upon some simple AND gate IC's.  I had a single wire to work in a mock up and then had a daughter so I ran outta time!   IN short I was going to use the ICs attached to a 3 way toggle for a Joy 1/2 toggle.  The same concept I'm sure would work with the serial bus though it would be quite unwieldly using the AND IC's I was using.  Prob something that could be adapted using an arduino or something of the sort.  I wanted to stay away from mechanical rotary switches, though it probably wouldnt hurt with an ON-OFF-ON 3 way rocker.

[MIRKOSOFT]

Hi!


This I did with DIP8 switcher - DIP6 was not possible to get...
Look at attachment.


Miro

[maraud]

so how is this wired internally??

[airship]

Just look for 'serial switch box' on the eBays. They'll work for switching joystick ports. I own two of these nifty 4-pushbutton models:



The ones I bought switch all 7 lines, though YMMV. You can hook them up with serial cables or joystick extension cables (much cheaper).

HOWEVER I strongly suggest you don't switch the ports 'hot'. You will most likely blow a CIA or two that way. (It might be okay if you've added diode protection, though.)

[maraud]

Interesting, So I wired up four connectors on a breadboard and it does indeed seem that all you need to do is drop the ATN line and the device goes away...  I'm gonna play with getting a PCB together that could have a number of IEC sockets with a single switch per socket to drop the ATN.  It would be like a 1 to 4 type setup, as the lines need to be run in parallel to keep from dropping off a while segment.  Fun, simple little project....  Step 2 would be to use MiniDIN... then just a simple adapter makes for a much smaller unit, or even MiniDIN to DIN cables?

[brain]

If this is not the person who conversed with me Friday night, note that someone is working on a 4 port serial switcher PCB.  Seems we should just do this once.

Jim

[mistermsk]

Hi!

I have one HW Q:

I want to do "serial switcher" - 'cause I don't want to plug and unplug when I need the serial cable...

I want to do a switcher, but don't know how.
Serial cable has 6 pins and I don't know how to connect and disconnect 6 wires with one switcher.
Or it can be done only with dis/connect ATN?
If yes, will be device beyond switcher "invisible" or better "not connected"?

In attachment is image how I want to do it...

Thank you all for every help.

Miro

I have a switch on the ATN line. It is a SPST ON-OFF-ON switch. I connected all wires to each other. The ATN wire I broke off and have the middle of the SPST switch going to the commodore wire. Then I attached each end to the ATN wire, which goes to to the equipments. Works well. I have it in my Commodore 64 Arcade machine that switches it from the 1541 to the uIEC.

[al]

I built a switchbox to allow two computers to access drives and printers. See:

http://www.alanger.net/comm/index.html and scroll down to Serial Switch Box.

Also see the Miscellaneous Commodore Projects; bottom of the page; for info on the ATN line.

HTH,
Al

[maraud]

That was me Jim.  Plan on getting back on it when I'm back in town Monday!