Serial Cables
If you have problems getting a serial port to talk to a peripheral, you’re probably using the wrong cable. That’s not surprising because there’s no such thing as a standard serial cable. Serial cables differ in the connectors used on each end, the number and type of wires that are connected end to end, the pinouts (which pin on one connector is connected to which pin on the other), and the connections made internally within each local connector, if any. With permutations, there are literally millions of ways you could build a serial cable. Fortunately, only a handful are commonly used.
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