Hi Folks, I have had an SP10 for some time (found it on a fleamarket).

I knew what it was and got the documentation on the internet. What I did not have was the dedicated programmer nor any PC software to program it (minilss). Fortunately, someone pu blished the minilss software on this forum. Now I needed a cable to hook up the PC to the SP10. No luck finding wiring info on the net. I did find a picture of the cable and expected that it would be simple and 'passive'. I decided to open up the SP10 and reverse engineer the cable wiring. The result is given in the attached diagram. It turns out that the SP10 (and SP1 6, SP20) uses an 'el cheapo' RS232 driver circuit. Pin 3 provides the TxD, pin 5 is RxD and several pins are available for use as GND. We also have two pins tha t are pulled 'high' and can be used as DTR or RTS. Finally, two pins provide +5V power. Again, note that the interface is not strictly compliant with the RS232 standard . Voltage levels of RS232 are typically from -12 to +12V. However, in practice m ost PCs work fine with input levels between 0 and 5V. The SPxx should be able to withstand -12V to +12V on its RxD input. This is achieved by the protection dio de D2 and the internal protection in the 7404 buffer. I know, the design is not strong but it works. The diagram also shows the homemade cables that I have used to hook up the SP10 with a Toshiba laptop. Two cable versions are shown : one is just a converter th at needs an additional 'null-modem' cable to the PC. The second example shows a cable that will directly hook up to the PC serial port. Note that I did insert an additional 1K resistor in the cable to protect D2. One problem remains: how to get hold of the special 8 pin male connector that th e SPxx uses. You can try your luck at some electronics shop. I was fortunate to have one in my box of 'neat stuff to keep' (I remember it came from some Sony vi deo camera). If you can't find one, try to roll your own from a PC keyboard/mouse plug. You w ill have to remove a plastic keypin and you are short of the DTR/RTS pins, but t hey can be replaced by a local loop on the PC side (RTS to CTS and DTR to DCD an d DSR). If all else fails, you can also simply connect some wires directly to the SPxx c ircuit board. For those of you who can not bear to see the RS232 standard violated in this way , please have a look at any circuit that uses the Maxim MAX232 level converter. This device will translate between RS232 voltage levels and TTL levels (0..5V). The device needs 5V power, which is available at pin 1 and 6 of the SPxx. Howeve r, note that you also need two additional inverters (e.g. 7404) to remove the ef fect of the internal 7404s in the TxD and RxD lines and you also need to make su re that DTR and RTS to the PC have the correct level (+12V). I have tested the cable as described with minilss and everything works fine. All information is believed to be accurate. However, I will not be held responsible for any damage caused by flaws in the design or errors in the text. The use of the hardware is at your own risk. Don't complain to me if you cause melt down of your PC or the SPxx, electrocute yourself, burn down your house or fry your cat . By using the information in this document you automatically acknowledge and ag ree with this disclaimer. Have fun, Wim Huiskamp