FRC: Reset and Program Controls

[ay2b]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

You can make things very easy on the programmers by extending the switches all the way to the PC they're using. The program port only uses five of the available nine pins in a serial cable. We "stole" three of them with a little adapter at each end of the cable, putting a reset and program switch right at the programmer's fingertips.

That's an excelent idea! I think I'll build a similar setup for our team. For the curious, take a look at the "program-port-y-cable.pdf" and "program-port-4-7-05.pdf" files on the IFI site (I don't have exact links off hand, just my downloaded copies). You'll see that the following pins are used: 2,3,5,7,8 (5 is ground). If anyone else makes a simlar setup, make sure that the wires you "steal" are not those pins.