[mythtv-users] Frontend USB to TV RS232 serial?

[Brian Wood]

On Monday 03 August 2009 18:20:56 Paul Bender wrote:
> Brian Wood wrote:
> > On Monday 03 August 2009 17:40:32 Paul Bender wrote:
> >> mythtv at derdev.com wrote:
> >>> On a frontend without any available serial ports (RS232) and plenty of
> >>> available USB ports, is there an easy/obvious solution to connect the
> >>> frontend to an HDTV's RS232 serial port for power on/off control?
> >>>
> >>> I see lots of USB to Serial converters but they don't seem to terminate
> >>> in the male serial connection needed to link up to the TV...  Barking
> >>> up the wrong tree here?
> >>
> >> I connect to my Sharp Aquos HDTV using a USB-to-RS232 cable along with
> >> an RS232 null modem (aka gender-bender) connector/cable.
> >
> > There seems to be some confusion about the difference between a null
> > modem and a "gender bender".
>
> Thank you for the clarification. As I have never used a null-modem that
> was not a gender-bender and I have never used a gender-bender that was
> not a null-modem, I had always assumed that they were the same thing.

A true gender-bender has a one-to-one mapping of the pins, a null modem swaps 
pins 2 and 3 (at least) to change DTE to DCE.

A lot of null modems swap gender, but most gender changers are not null 
modems, you must have run into minority benders.

-- 
Brian Wood
beww at beww.org