5-in-1 network admin's cable - 3com adapter??

[jdetmold]

a few years ago I followed the guide and made some cable's and adapters.
I'm sure this guide has been mentioned on here many times before so i wont go into much about it but if you haven't seen it you should check it out http://www.ossmann.com/5-in-1.html

I have recently inherited the job of maintaining around 12 3com Baseline 2226-SFP Plus switches.

there is of course no documentation, no one knows the the passwords and there are no console cables.

So i plan on creating a new adapter for my cable set. I found the manual with the pinouts here >> Manual the pin outs are on pages 87 & 88 but i'm unsure of what pinout to use.
theres a pinout for "Console Cable" RJ45 > DB9 modem or console (both with different pinouts) and an RJ45 > DB9 PC-AT Serial Cable

I'm not sure what one i need to make though.

if i need to make the "Console Cable" (I think I do) I need to know if i use the modem or console pinout. in this case i should be able to just crimp a short adapter cable i think

If i need to use the PC-AT Serial Cable pinout i will need to make a new RJ45>DB9 adapter.

any help would be great!

I am assuming I use Console Cable with the Console pinout but if anyone can confirm that for me that would be a big help since I will need it monday and dont have a 3com here to test with.

 

[InvisiBill]

To me, it looks like the additional pinouts on 88 are for standard PC cables, and not directly related to the console cable. As for the pinout on 87, it looks like they're providing pinouts to work directly with the serial port (console) or with your existing DB9 cable (modem).

I think you'd be good if you made the RJ45 to DB9 adapter using their "console" pinout.

 

[jdetmold]

To me, it looks like the additional pinouts on 88 are for standard PC cables, and not directly related to the console cable. As for the pinout on 87, it looks like they're providing pinouts to work directly with the serial port (console) or with your existing DB9 cable (modem).

I think you'd be good if you made the RJ45 to DB9 adapter using their "console" pinout.

done and done! thats sorta what i figured.

Thanks for your input!!!

 

[InvisiBill]

I just made some crossover and Cisco RJ45 adapters for this today. I don't think it'd be worthwhile to go out and pay the asking price for them, but if you happen to be retiring PowerEdge 1850's and have a bunch of P5430's just laying around, they're great for this. The PE1850 has a horrible design, with the network jacks sort of up inside the server, so they make this ~3" RJ45 dongle extension that plugs into the NICs so you can easily insert/remove your cables.

Just clip off the RJ45 plug that's on it and crimp on your own with whatever pinout you need. It's essentially the stubby little cable adapter plus the coupler combined into one. If you just have the crossover and Cisco versions, the total volume is probably about the same (two of these vs. one coupler plus two stubby cables), but this has the benefit of being slightly larger so you're less likely to lose it in your toolbag, you don't have to worry about getting the Cisco one reversed, and it's one less connection (adapter cable to coupler) to worry about in general.

If you had a bunch of these with different pinouts, it would probably be easier to have a single coupler and a number of stubby adapter cables rather than having half a coupler stuck on each one. But for only two, I think it's got more ease of use without too much extra clutter.

There's also a K9703 which is two of these dongles combined into one unit (for the dual NICs). I don't think it would work as well, as the molded strain relief would probably make it harder to crimp your own ends on (too short?). Plus it makes for a single larger unit, which may not fit into whatever device you're trying to adapt to.

P.S. Having access to a fancy Fluke cable tester is great. I was able to verify that both of my adapters were wired to the proper pinouts without any extra connections that shouldn't be there. Now I just need to get some RJ45 to DB9 adapters so I can finish this up for my toolkit.

 

[jdetmold]

looks good!
more or less the same idea.
i just use a F/F rj45 adapter (can use to extend as well great to have on hand) vs M/F and it standardises the pinouts so you can use the same DB9/RJ45 jack for multiple things modem/null modem/console, and i use a regular lan cable to extend any or the cables i use. it has worked very well for several years now i highly recommend it to anyone who currently carries several different cables.
http://www.ossmann.com/5-in-1.html