Netra Enterprise 220R console connection

Dave,

Welcome to the fray :-)

You have two issues.  The first is the cable, and the second is in software.

On the cable, you need to cross the transmit / receive lines.  Put pin 2 to pin 3, and pin 3 to pin 2.  I would recommend disconnecting the other lines, as they aren't necessary for communication.

Here's the pinout you want:

rx     2-------3   tx
tx     3-------2   rx
gnd  5--------7  gnd

Now, having disabled the other connections, you have one software change to make.  Use Xon / Xoff flow control instead of hardware flow control from Hyperterminal.

Have fun!

Also, be sure to wait a couple of minutes for output, depending on the firmware level on the system.

If you'd like to see POST output in the future, send a <break> immediately upon seeing the boot message.  This will take you to the OBM (ok prompt).  Type this command:

setenv diag-switch? true

This will give you verbose output and better POST (at the expense of a slightly longer boot time).

I suspect that cable spec. is for a "real" terminal, (Data Terminal); But if you're using a laptop, pins 2 & 3 should be crossed as the Sun and PC are both "Data Servers".

However,  the rest of the pins  are correct to the best of my (hazy) recollection of making up cables...

Duh - Far too slow on my reading - Good info, stanford_16

Hi lads,

sorry, but I'm getting confused, I'm getting my pin out from the following website

http://www.stokely.com/unix.serial.port.resources/A-B-Ycablepinout.html#pinid

It states that pin2 on db25 is tx and pin3 on db25 is rx, that means that I am crossing over the cable, also we have a serial interfaker which shows that my tx and rx are indeed crossed over.

I did try xon/off but that didn't work.

I visited the site, and the while the pinout they have doesn't correspond to the cables / connectors I have, you've already answered whether they're crossed or not.  The next step is to disconnect the remainder of the pins, leaving only transmit, receive, and ground.

The next thing to do is ensure that the E220 is outputting to the serial port and that you're properly connected.

There are three 25 pin ports on the back of the E220.  They're labeled as "A", "B", and "/ /".  Make sure you're plugging into A

Next, the system may have an RSC.  Do you see a card in the PCI expansion slots with three RJ45 connectors in it, labeled Serial, Ethernet, and Modem?  If so, we need to take that out of the mix for now.  Just open up the system (three screws on the top), remove the cover, unscrew the card, and remove it for now.  Place the cover back on and try again.

If neither of those suggestions work, the next step is to verify that the system is coming up properly.  Power on the system with both front covers open.  One of the power supplies should have two lights lit, the other should have one.  After several minutes (depending on OBP settings), the disks should start chugging.  Is this occurring?

That should be enough steps for now :-).  Just post another comment if this thing's still hassling you.

Hey Stanford,

thanks for your suggestions, I've been busy doing other things at work but I've now had a chance to go over some of your suggestions.

Here's what I've done so far...

It is connected to Serial A
There is no RSC, but there is 2 other cards, both have an MII socket and an RJ45
Both LED's come on and there is no fault LED (the one marked with a "spanner", "shifter" in the states)
The Hard drives do indeed spin up

Here's what cable configs I've tried and the output on Hyperteminal

db9           db25
2------------2
3------------3
5------------7

Xon/Xoff = Garbled Characters on screen when 220 is first powered on (tried all baud rates from 110 to 115200)
Hardware = Nothing
None = Nothing

db9       db25
2----------3
3----------2
5----------7

Xon/Xoff = Nothing
Hardware = Nothing
None = Nothing

Cheers
Dave

Garbled characters are far better than no characters!

Going with the Xon/Xoff flow control, a baud rate of 9600, and the correct pinout being 2-2, 3-3, and 5-7, try saving a seesion w/Hyperterminal.  Restart it, power on the Sun box, and see what you get.  Often Hyperterminal chokes on switching settings on the fly.

Thanks,
Aaron

Hi Aaron,

Sorry I should have stated thats when I get the garbled characters "when I switch on the 220 with hyperterminal connected". Yes I have noticed hyperterminal's ability to lock up when changing flow control methods, great software eh!

After the garbled characters appear no keystrokes work and I've even tried to CTRL-BREAK and that doesn't work either.

Cheers
Dave

I found a spare graphics card from a Enterprise 250, I plugged this into the 220R, and I get "no signal", I hope this helps, could it be a serious machine fault?

Dave

Before getting the screwdrivers out, I'd check the other HyperTerm settings - Data Bits, Parity, Stop Bit   (Maybe stanford_16 can say what they _should_ be?)  The fact that you're getting _something_ (even tho' its garbled) indicates a simple comms problem.

Fantastic,

thankyou ever so much Aaron, when starting to strip out the insides I noticed that one of the CPU's clips didn't seem to be in properly, I pushed it in and heard a "click", I then put the power back in and voila, one console communicating baby.

thankyou again for your time and effort

Dave

Great!  Have fun :)