SERIAL PORT PIN SPACING UNIQUE ON 95LX: BE CAREFUL WITH CUSTOM CABLES 100LX 95LX

If you intend to make a custom serial cable for your HP 95LX, you should use an official HP cable (or one of the Experimenter's Serial Cables from EduCALC) as the starting point. The four-pin connector on the HP 95LX is not a standard size. The pin spacing (pitch) is 2mm, whereas the spacing on a standard header connector is 2.54mm. While you may not see much of a difference, using a standard four-pin connector will bend the pins on the 95LX which will eventually cause them to break. Also, the custom connector has a specially shaped molded head which provides a strain-relief for the pins. Without this strain-relief, any slight tug on the cable could cause a pin to break. Since the Experimenter's Cables are only $12.95 from EduCALC and the repair of the 95LX is $190.00, in the long run you'll save a lot of money and grief by using the proper connector. Currently there is no Experimenter's Cable for the 100LX, so you will need to use the standard HP serial cable as a starting point.

Dave Shier

CompuServe ID: [75030,3374]