Check if cable is parnet or not?

[Liqourice]

Back in the day after I bought my A4000 I got myself a Parnet cable to transfer files to it from my old 500/GVP HD. After that I put the cable away and more or less forgot about it.

Now I want to try and get some files the other way since I've got my 500 up and running again with a modern accelerator. Have no network capability in it though so parnet is a decent choise for files that don't fit on a floppy.

I've dug through my old stuff and found a cable with male DB25 in each end. No other indication if this is the right cable or not. Sad to say I never marked it up back when I used it and I don't remember if there ever were markings on it to indicate what it was.

So how can I check if it is a parnet cable? Looking at the schematics in the Parnet doc only tells me that measuring pins on each side won't tell me anything.

Did actual parallell printer cables back then have a male DB25 in each end? I really can't remember what kind of cable I used to my old matrix printer back then.

I won't connect this cable until I'm absolutely sure it's the correct one but how do I measure to find out or do I have to open it up?

[hooverphonique]

Originally Posted by Liqourice

So how can I check if it is a parnet cable? Looking at the schematics in the Parnet doc only tells me that measuring pins on each side won't tell me anything.

Did actual parallell printer cables back then have a male DB25 in each end? I really can't remember what kind of cable I used to my old matrix printer back then.

Measuring pin-pin continuity of a cable that you suspect is parnet should be ok to confirm that I think.. Just verify that pins that shouldn't be connected aren't - or open up the connector shells to check the connections.

Parallel port printers usually have a Centronics connector, and since yours is the same gender at both ends, it's not an extension cord.

[nogginthenog]

Most parallel printers had a Centronics connector on the printer end. I've never seen a printer with a DB25 connector but they may exist.

It could also be a PC Laplink cable so you are right to be careful. PC parallel ports are wired differently. Would this damage the Amiga? I'm not sure.

The docs I found say pins 10 & 13 are connected. You could try measuring that.

[Liqourice]

Yes, 10 and 13 are connected, on both ends and to both ends so it should be a parnet cable then.

[hooverphonique]

That doesn't sound right.. Parnet requires, among others, all 8 data lines to be connected..

[nogginthenog]

comm/net/parnet.lha

Cable.Doc

The following connections need to be made on a DB25 cable:

	    You are making a cable that connects the two PARALLEL ports
	of your Amiga together.

	    CABLE:  Connect D7-D0,SEL,POUT, and BUSY across,
		    Connect ACK (FLAG interrupt) to SEL locally:

	    (2-9)   D7-D0   ------------    D7-D0
	    (12)    POUT    ------------    POUT
	    (11)    BUSY    ------------    BUSY       PARALLEL PORT
	    (13)    SEL     --+------+--    SEL
	    (10)    ACK     -/        \-    ACK
	    (18-22) GND     ------------    GND  (18-22)

[Liqourice]

Originally Posted by hooverphonique

That doesn't sound right.. Parnet requires, among others, all 8 data lines to be connected..

They are. Just checking if the oddities with 10 and 13 of the cable are true for a parnet one. In a real parallel cable 10 and 13 shouldn't be connected.

18-22 are connected but also 23, don't know if that makes any difference really. It's obviously my old parnet cable and it worked 26 years ago so it should work now.

[hooverphonique]

Originally Posted by Liqourice

They are. Just checking if the oddities with 10 and 13 of the cable are true for a parnet one. In a real parallel cable 10 and 13 shouldn't be connected.

Gotcha, I misunderstood the 10/13 thing mentioned

Originally Posted by Liqourice

18-22 are connected but also 23, don't know if that makes any difference really. It's obviously my old parnet cable and it worked 26 years ago so it should work now.

23 is also GND, so no problem connecting that as well.. Having multiple grounds in the cable is mainly to reduce emissions, which you probably don't care about..

[Liqourice]

Well, I can't get it to work for some reason. One or both parallel ports might be damaged. Have no way to test that I'm afraid.

Might put my MFC-III back in the 4000 and see if I can configure it to use the parallel port on that and see if I get it working, unless it has a different pinout of course. In that case it's probably the 4000 parallel port that's defunct. We'll see, not sure the MFC-card works either since I haven't had it plugged in for 20 years or so.

[Liqourice]

Tried ProNet instead and that worked like a charm so problem just me not configuring correctly. Cable working, files getting transfered between them.