Long Tether Cables

[progcamsrobot]

Last year during a regional competition I noticed that some teams had long tether cables that they had made themselves. If anyone know's the schematic for the tether port. It would be greatly appreciated if that team or person would share it.

[Cody Carey]

You can just take the tether cable and link it with a standard male/female cable... you should watch going above 2 or 3 cables though... The interference gets pretty rough

[steven114]

You shouldn't need the schematic to extend it - just get a standard straight-through serial cord and daisy-chain it to the end of the provided tether cable. It should work great as long as it's not too long.

[progcamsrobot]

What I'm aiming to do is have one cable so I don't have to worry about them disconnecting. And also so that I don't have to carry more than one cable.

[dez250]

If all you want is a single cable, but a long one, then i would suggest a 25 foot female to female or male to female with a female to male converter, straight through serial cable. These can be found on many places on line, at computer or electronics stores, or can be made pretty easily.

Good Luck!

[ForgottenSalad]

It's just a standard DB-15 connector (female on both ends in the case of the red tether cable)... I'd assume you could just cut one end and extend it yourself. Though I don't know at what distance you'd want to stop, seeing as more distance = more interference.

[Matt Krass]

I think its a direct pin to pin match, so the schematic is unnecessary, try a multimeter in continuity mode check the pins on the tether cable to see how they match up.

[Justin Stiltner]

Originally Posted by ForgottenSalad

It's just a standard DB-15 connector (female on both ends in the case of the red tether cable)... I'd assume you could just cut one end and extend it yourself. Though I don't know at what distance you'd want to stop, seeing as more distance = more interference.

Don't you mean it is a DB-9 end on the cable.. not a DB-15 which is what the joysticks use, the number is the number of pins in the cable. Also if you are buying one, DO NOT get an NULL MODEM cable, this is not what you want. You want straight through.
I would also like the schematic of the tether port because if only 1 wire isn't used then I could use some CAT-5e cable that I have to make one.
BTW someone on here had long tether cables they were selling from their signature...

[Mark McLeod]

Any of the female to female DB9 cables listed here will do the job.
http://www.cablewholesale.com/catalo...rialcables.htm

This is a 25 foot version for $4.39.
http://www.cablewholesale.com/specs/10d1-03425.htm

25' tethers are common and normal recommendations would be to stay under 50'. I've been able to run long tether cables up to 100 ft without a problem, but mileage may vary. Over 100' you need to power the OI separately, and eventually the signal degrades with too much distance.

P.S. I've used converters to go from serial to Cat5 and back again for long distances, but the OI must be powered separately, and the converters are far more expensive than a $4 serial cable. They just happened to be available to test with.

[BrianBSL]

Originally Posted by Justin Stiltner

Don't you mean it is a DB-9 end on the cable.. not a DB-15 which is what the joysticks use, the number is the number of pins in the cable. Also if you are buying one, DO NOT get an NULL MODEM cable, this is not what you want. You want straight through.
I would also like the schematic of the tether port because if only 1 wire isn't used then I could use some CAT-5e cable that I have to make one.
BTW someone on here had long tether cables they were selling from their signature...

I can't imagine a CAT5 cable would work that well - unless there were enough grounds to do some twisted pair style noise shielding. Putting two data lines on a twisted pair isn't going to work for more than a foot or two.

[devicenull]

If you were to get a male to female cable, then get a gender changer (male to female), you could have a nice long program cable too

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Justin Stiltner

BTW someone on here had long tether cables they were selling from their signature...

Not sure if sanddrag is still selling them--but he's the one who had that sig.

[BRosser314]

well for those of u that want the cable layout,

program cable pinout guide:
http://www.ifirobotics.com/docs/program-port-4-7-05.pdf

you can follow the same pinout to make a tether just make sure you use the same color wires on each end when connecting to the DB-9 plugs. alos i believe there is other pinouts somewhere on this site, didnt take te time to look

[Conor Ryan]

Originally Posted by Justin Stiltner

BTW someone on here had long tether cables they were selling from their signature...

Originally Posted by EricH

Not sure if sanddrag is still selling them--but he's the one who had that sig.

Look no further than http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/member.php?u=2022 follow the directions, if he hasn't read this yet, he'll answer your PM.

[slightly off topic]A wise man once said, every time someone said tether cable, sanddrag got another post.[/off topicness]

As for more ontopic stuff, I've used cablewholesale.com and they are pretty good for the tether cables, I liked electronics goldmine more, but they went out of stock and never got any more. But, http://search.ebay.com/DB9-cable may help for bargin basement prices.

[sanddrag]

Originally Posted by Conor Ryan

[slightly off topic]A wise man once said, every time someone said tether cable, sanddrag got another post.[/off topicness]

Yes. I sell long serial cables. A CD Swap posting with all the details will be up as soon as a mod approves it.

If you are looking for a 25' serial cable, look no further. I offer them at about half the price of IFI. PM me if you are interested.

I soon hope to set up an online store and offer 25' female-female cables in red or black.