Will 60' RS232 cable made from cat5 work?

[miamicanes]

My M1G is going to be located about 60 feet away from my desktop PC (~5 feet down, ~30 feet behind the baseboard, ~12 feet up to the next floor, and about 10 feet over to my PC). If I make a ghetto 60' null modem cable by using two pairs in a cat5e cable to carry TX to RX, and the other two pairs to carry RX to TX (using one wire of each pair for the signal, and one for ground), then connect CTS+RTS and DSR+DTR+CD at each end, is it likely to work well enough to program the panel?

 

[upstatemike]

You probably don't need to get that fancy. I use just 3 wires in a cat5 cable for TX, RX, and Ground in many applications over 100 feet with no problem. I don't think the M1G uses CTS, RTS, DSR, DTR or CD does it?

 

[ASIHome]

It really depends on the baud rate, the slower the rate the farther you can go. We have had people get 100-150 feet with 9600 baud.

 

[pkoslow]

Back in the day, we used to run terminal server devices across entire manufacturing facilities (1000+ Feet) using CAT3 wiring at 9600 Baud.

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

It will work, but don't "ghetto" the connection. Use these adapters instead.

http://www.deepsurplus.com/HOME/RJ45-to-DB9-15-25

FYI, you can snake the unused wires out the side for additional connections.

 

[Photon]

"If I make a ghetto 60' null modem cable by using two pairs in a cat5e cable to carry TX to RX, and the other two pairs to carry RX to TX. . . "

You'll probably want to review the M1G manual a couple dozen more times. There is a pin-out for the serial cable on page 7: Pin 2 to Pin 2, Pin 3 to pin 3, and pin 5 to pin 5. It suggests a 50' max cable length, but like PKOSLOW said, it has been done substantially farther.