Everex EV-170B card with 16550A's

[Mark W. Snitily]

The following is a somewhat long note about a nice three port serial I/O
card and a question about RS-232 pin orderings.

With the recent info on how to fix uucico throughput with 16550A's, I went
shopping for a new serial I/O card that would allow me to replace *all* of
the 16450 UART chips with 16550A chips.  (Typically serial I/O cards have
one 16450 (or equivalent) soldered in place and have one socket for an
additional UART for COM2.)

What I came across was the Everex EV-170B card.  Nice.  Typical inexpensive
I/O card; has parallel port, game port, but has *three* serial ports.  Each
serial port's UART is socketed and each serial port allows the selection of
independent interrupt vectors and I/O addresses.  In other words, this
card *is not* like the typical DOS configuration of forcing COM1/COM2 to
share the same interrupt vectors with COM3/COM4.

So, if you have an unused interrupt vector (either 5 or 9) then you can
configure Unix (386/ix 2.0.1 in my case) to have *three* serial lines.
And, if you're using a device driver that supports the 16550A, *all* three
lines can enjoy the super throughput that the 16550A provides.

So far, all nice and grand -- now for the real reason why I'm writing this.
To make what could be a *real* long story short, IMHO the pins on the card
that connect to the RS-232C cables are really ordered *weird*.

          RS-232C                  J Connector Pins on Card
   ---------------------           ------------------------
   9-pin  25-pin  Signal           Normal    Everex EV-170B
     1       8     DCD             1  (8)        1  (8)
     2       3     RX              2  (3)        3  (2)
     3       2     TX              3  (2)        5  (7)
     4      20     DTR             4 (20)        7  (4)
     5       7     GND             5  (7)        9 (22)
     6       6     DSR             6  (6)        2  (3)
     7       4     RST             7  (4)        4 (20)
     8       5     CTS             8  (5)        6  (6)
     9      22     RI              9 (22)        8  (5)

For example, on the card the J connector pin number 5 normally connects
to pin number 5 on the 9-pin RS-232, (or pin number 7 on the 25-pin
RS-232).  But on the EV-170B, the J connector pin number 5 needs to
connect to pin number 9 on the 9-pin RS-232, (or pin number 22 on the
25-pin RS-232).

[The above mapping was obtained only after:  exchanging the card once
thinking it was defective -- no difference;  calling Everex tech support --
it was configured correctly according to them;  buying a RS-232 breakout
box -- that's something I've avoided for over a decade;  and finally
tracing the lines on the PC card -- it now works!]

If anyone from Everex is reading this, may I suggest that you please
add the pin's signals to your manual.  There's no hint that buying a
standard cable (from someone other than Everex) won't work.

Has anyone ever seen the pin ordering that's on this card?  Is it
*weird*, or is it yet another standard used by some vendors?

-- Mark W. Snitily
   894 Brookgrove Lane
   Cupertino, CA 05014
   (408) 252-0456 (voice with answering machine)
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