jeffx said:
Yes, I do hava several multimeters.
OK, put one of the multimeters on "OHMS" selection (symbol shaped like a horseshoe). If you have a manual scale type place it on the smallest scale (i.e. vs an autoscale meter which only would have the OHMS selection).
You should see a ONE or "OL" or some indication of "infinite" resistance. Touch the meter leads together and you should see something like 0.1 ohms on the meter.
Now place one of the meter tips on the end of one of the pins on the DB-25 connector. Place the other on its corresponding pin on the DB-9 connector. You should see 0.1 ohms. If you see the "infinite" resistance, you do not have "continuity" (the pins are not on the same wire).
Another quick check, especially if you are doing any soldering, is to check for "leakage" between the pins. This really isn't a problem in your case as it would be pretty hard to do with those adapters. But, for those of you playing along at home, here is how you do it.
Place the meter in it's largest OHMS scale (or just OHMS for a multiscale type meter). Touch the meter leads together and you will see similar results as above. Separate the leads and you should see infinite resistance.
Now place on meter tip on a pin. Then, touch the other tip on all of the pins and the outer ground shield (if applicable). You should see the same infinite reading for each pin touched by the second lead (except for the pin that it is actually connected to of course
). If you see any reading, you have leakage between the pins. As I stated before this could be due to someone "stapling" a wire down on a stud, oversoldering pins, etc... This step is important to do if you are installing say, a security system so you know all of the wiring is not damaged. All of these steps (ringing out cabling) is explained in more detail in my
Installing a Home Security System How-To.
Again, this does not need to be done in this case.