Author: Ian Osgood
Date: 16:42:46 09/09/98
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On September 09, 1998 at 13:24:15, Tim Mirabile wrote: >On September 08, 1998 at 16:30:12, Ian Osgood wrote: > >>Greetings, >> >>I have a question for owners of the Novag Diamond II, Sapphire II, Universal >>Chess Board (UCB) or Novag Distributor. >> >>Can anyone provide me a pinout of the serial port on any of these items? Even >>better would be the pinout of the cables used to connect the Sapphire/Diamond to >>the UCB, or the UCB to a PC serial port. (I would like a description of the >>connectors on each end and a map of which pin on one end is connected to each >>pin on the other end. This is easily determined using a multimeter.) It would >>be sufficient know whether the connector for the UCB is identical to that of the >>Sapphire or Diamond. > >I don't think so, since the Sapphire or Diamond require the Novag Distributor in >order to connect to a PC, while the UCB does not. I am assuming that the UCB >contains some of the interface circutry contained in the Distributor. According to Nick J. Biggs, host of a nice website concerning the Novag Universal Chessboard (http://www.pawn.demon.co.uk/UCBProt.htm), the UCB has two identical 6-pin RJ11 sockets, one just for connecting to the Sapphire or Diamond (which also have RJ11 sockets) and one for connecting to the PC, with a switch to activate one vs. the other. This leads me to a few hypotheses: the two lines may have different voltages and pinouts (RS-232 vs. RS-422 for example), and the data rate and protocol is likely to be the same for both ports. This leads me to ask about the Distributor. Does anyone actually own one? It would surprise me, since I can't find anyone who is actively marketing it. Not even the Novag web site gives it a mention (though their ads say that the Sapphire and Diamond "Easily connect to any PC via serial port", as if the capability were built in!) I've been told that some of the Sapphire's advertised features (user programmable book, game analysis, rate-your-play) only work in conjunction with the Distributor. Sounds like bait-and-switch to me. What comes with this $70 Distributor? Does it require a power supply? Does it require or come bundled with software on the PC? Is it compatible with a UNIX or Macintosh computer? Does it have any other bells and whistles? Or is it just an overpriced serial cable? Any information would be appreciated.
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