HOWTO: Making an RS-232 cable for a Sound Canvas MIDI synthesizer

[TheRogue]

I'm not entirely sure if there is any use for this on the X68000, however I notice that Sound Canvas RS-232 cables have been discussed on Japanese pages, so I assume there are some programs that take advantage of the RS-232 port on Sound Canvas synthesizers, so here's everything you need to connect the PC control port of your Sound Canvas to the RS-232 port of your X68000.

Supplies needed:

1. Male 8 pin MiniDIN connector (will come with it's own plastic housing) x 1
2. Male 25 pin D-Sub connector x 1
3. 25 Pin D-sub housing x 1
4. One of the following:
    a) 3 ft length of cable with 5 shielded conductors OR
    b) 3 ft length of shielded multi-strand wire x5 AND 3ft length of heat-shrink tube x 1 AND heat-gun/high power hair driver
5. Soldering iron

Step one is only for those using heat-shrink and individual wires, if you are using a pre-made 5 conductor cable, proceed to step 2.

Step 1: Place the heat-shrink tubing over the 5 wires now, leaving about 3-4 inches of the wires sticking out on each side of the heat-shrink. Heat the heat-shrink tubing with the hair dryer or heat gun to make it shrink over the wires.

Step 2: Slide the housing for the MiniDIN connector over the cable (if you forget this step you will have to take the cable apart to put the housing on)

Step 3: Solder the wires to the appropriate pins, following this diagram:



Step 4: Install the housings over the bare connectors

You're done! I haven't discovered fully what this is good for yet, but when I do, you guys will have the cable.