Re: Connecting QuickCam

Bruce Carter (bcarter@mentor.idbsu.edu)
Sun, 7 Jan 1996 00:14:12 EST

At 10:04 AM 1/6/96, Michael R. Cady wrote:
>Some apple serial devices will not work through a switch box. I couldn't
>get the color printer to work on a switch box, or the quick cam. I haven't
>tried the Quicktake any other way except through the modem port.
>Unfortunately, when you're blessed with having all the neat devices you end
>up having to do lots of unplugging. Be careful with the Din 8 plugs since
>those pins can be easily bent, especially if you're doing a Tim Allen (more
>power!!) on it.

Everything I've ever tried works fine through a serial switch box (4
position, in my case, using variously a QuickTake, a 14.4Kbps modem, an
ImageWriter and a StyleWriter). The catch is that all of the Apple cables
are handshake (also called crossover) and you need a straight-through cable
to run between the modem port and the switch box (otherwise, you're
crossing everything over twice, which won't work). These can be had at
most any electronics warehouse joint (I get mine at Future Shop).

To answer the original question, generally most software expects this sort
of device to be on the modem port, but most of them will let you
reconfigure for the printer port. For the greatest ease of operation, I
use the switch box on the modem port (I occasionally need to hook LocalTalk
up to the printer port anyway).

A good manual switch box won't allow crosstalk (the interference you
mentioned) since the switch should electrically isolate the separate
devices. The automatic type might have problems, though (I've never used
them).

--
Bruce Carter, Instructional Software Designer     (208)385-1851@voice
Boise State University, Boise, ID  83725          (208)385-1856@fax
http://mentor.idbsu.edu/BruceCarter/home.html     bcarter@mentor.idbsu.edu