Never Trust the Manual

[toml_12953]

I have a Sharp PC-E500S calculator with a CE-130T RS-232C Level Converter and a CE-515P Plotter/Printer. The manuals describe the cable necessary to connect the plotter to the calculator via the serial port. I made a cable using those specs and tested each end to make sure the proper pins were connected. I hooked up the cable and tried to print. Garbage printed. I checked the baud, parity, bits and stop bits and they were all set properly. I hooked the plotter to a PC with the parallel interface and it printed properly. I then tried hooking up the three wires from the printer's DIN connector (data, ground and wait) to a DB-25 connector in all sorts of ways. Finally, I got the printer to print the way it should. The pins I had to connect weren't the same as in the manual. If the manuals had been correct, this would've been simple! Instead, I wasted hours checking everything over and over and tearing out what little hair I have left. I've been working with communications equipment since about 1978 and I've never had such a fight!