Didn't the original TRS-80 have a kind of screw up, where the tape and
display connector were the same?

Actually, years later the Atari Lynx had a similar mishap - the power
charger and headphone jack port look identical?  (something like that, and
would cause damage if used incorrectly)


Steve


On Sun, Feb 2, 2025 at 6:53 PM Robert Feldman via cctalk <
cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:

> >Message: 31
> >Date: Sun, 2 Feb 2025 07:29:15 +0000
> >From: Tony Duell <ard.p850...@gmail.com>
> >Subject: [cctalk] Re: RS232 then and now
> >
> >On Sat, Feb 1, 2025 at 10:54 PM Fred Cisin via cctalk
> ><cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:
> >
> >
> >>
> >> IBM used a DB25 socket for their printer port at the computer end,
> >> (male on the card for serial, female on the card for parallel
> "Centronics")
> >> THAT, of course caused some idiots to attempt to use the parallel port
> for
> >> serial and vice versa.  "I just need a 'gender changer'!" :-)
> >
> >The worst screw-up there (IMHO) came from HP in the HP150 series. This
> >machine had 2 RS232 serial ports as standard on DB25 sockets, wired
> >for some inexplicable reason as DTEs. There was an add-on board that
> >included a parallel printer port. To avoid confusion, this was a DB25
> >plug. But the board had been laid out for a DB25 socket using the IBM
> >PC pinout. The result was that stb/ ended up on pin 13, D0 on pin 12,
> >and so on.
> >
> >-tony
> >
>
> My vote for the worst connector screw-up is the AT&T (Olivetti) 6300. Its
> monochrome monitor used a DB25 to supply both the signals and 12 volts to
> power the monitor.
>
> Bob
>
>

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