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 > >
