Wiring the RS-232 Connectors to the MDC Box

The RS-232 end of the 3 way box has three 9 way D-type connectors. These are labelled Hub, M/C and Bar.

The Hub connector is designed to plug into a Moxa 9 way serial port via a straight through 9 way cable which is supplied. This cable will also work for any other hubs that have a 9 way male serial port wired as a PC type interface (e.g. Quatech, Digi). CIMCO have tested the following Moxa hubs: W2150+, NPort 5110 and DE-311.

If you are adding MDC to an existing DNC installation which is cabled to a remote multi-way hub (e.g. NPort 5610-16) or a PC with multi-way serial card (e.g. Moxa C168P) you will need to check that your existing cables have at least 7 wires in them and you will have to rewire both ends of the cable to carry the additional DCD and DSR signals. If in doubt contact CIMCO before quoting as you may have to run all new cables.

The M/C connector is wired as a standard PC type serial port and should be used to connect to the machine via a standard 'Cross-over' or 'Laptop' cable unless you require 3 machine signals. If you require three signals you must link together RTS/CTS (normally pins 4 & 5) at the machine end of the cable and leave pins 7 and 8 disconnected at the MDC box end. This is because the third signal is passed back to DNC-Max via the CTS line on the Moxa hub and cannot be used for communications as well. Bear in mind that you will not be able to use hardware handshaking for that machine either.

The Bar connector is designed so that a 9 way RS-232 barcode reader can be plugged directly into it.