Amiga.org
Coffee House => Coffee House Boards => CH / General => Topic started by: Super TWiT on October 14, 2011, 06:22:02 PM
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Okay, so I am building a new PC, since my other one died. Anyway, to my surprise the motherboard has a serial port built in still, and support for 5 1/4 in. disk drives! Being a vintage computer user, this made me happy. However, I got to thinking, some of those computers are close to thirty years old (Apple II, C64, Amiga). If they died while connected to my computer (power supply, capacitor failure, etc.) would it damage my new PC? All of my vintage PCs have switching power supplies, including the C64, so is the fuse likely to blow before it damages my PC?
I have an old P3 I could use for retro computers, and I don't care if it blew up (it cost me $10 at Salvation Army :)) but that isn't as convenient.
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I think it's near impossible for a failing peripheral attached to a modern serial port to damage the host. If you're concerned, though, grab a $10 RS232 card for your new machine and move the risk to the card instead.
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I think it's near impossible for a failing peripheral attached to a modern serial port to damage the host. If you're concerned, though, grab a $10 RS232 card for your new machine and move the risk to the card instead.
Or one of these for less than two quid.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/USB-2-0-RS232-SERIAL-DB9-9-PIN-ADAPTER-CABLE-GPS-PDA-/270491516064?pt=UK_Computing_CablesConnectors_RL&hash=item3efa8cfca0
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If you have both machines off when connecting you should never have a problem. Though as serial isn't opto isolated it is possible to damage either if something went horribly wrong internally....
I'd be careful with the baud rate on the new PC though, it might turn your Amiga inside-out if you try to download from it to quickly... :)
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it might turn your Amiga inside-out if you try to download from it to quickly
my amiga exploded