RE: UPS Signal Cable Problems with i5

["Urbanek, Marty" <Marty_Urbanek@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I assume they were thinking of how to save money by using the same hardware as 
pSeries. Or maybe just to make it interesting on me because I had J14 memorized.

Sounds like now they're using an actual serial communications port like a PC 
would instead of a specialized port (J14). That's probably why it's male now. I 
think DTE comm ports are always male.

Here's a writeup I found on the Powerware site:

http://www.oem.powerware.com/ibm-ups/pdf/i5cable.pdf

I was pleasantly surprised to find a page that gives us the pinouts, if one 
were inclined to make their own cable, which I am not, and also says 520, 550, 
570 are the same:

http://tinyurl.com/56rxm

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/iseries/v1r2s/en_US/index.htm?info/iphad/ups.htm

On second thought, maybe I'll solder a bunch of them together and put them on 
eBay and get out of the software business... I think I could undercut the $95 
price tag by about half and throw in a free bonus programming book, since I 
won't be needing those stupid things anymore.

-Marty

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date: Wed, 6 Oct 2004 18:19:22 -0400
from: Al Barsa <barsa@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
subject: UPS Signal Cable Problems with i5

Hi,

The UPS signal cable port on the back of the system, which for years has
been labeled as J14 has always been a female port.  It turns out that on
the 520 and 570 (I haven't seen a 550 yet) it is obviously labeled T1 and
now it's male!

Come on, give me a break.  So when you shell out for your new i5, you also
have to purchase a gender bender (obviously not included) to change your
signal cable port from male to female.

Was anyone thinking?

Al