Amiga Explorer with null modem cable

[Kernel]

So old thread yes but pertinent to me at the moment...

I've been fighting with Amiga Explorer for a few house now trying to piece together why I am getting periodic errors on the COM PORT.

This is what I've got.

USB/Serial Adapter:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007T27H8/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

NULL Modem Cable:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006W0I58Q/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Now, I'm thinking  based on the pin-out on that NULL cable page, that's my problem.  But then again, it all seems to work some of the time.  For example, I'm looking at all my drives in Amiga Explorer from Windows right now.  But sometimes, clicking on something results in one of the attached error message.

Serial prefs on the A3K:

19.2K Baud, 512 Input Buffer Size, RTS/CTS, 8-N-1

Serial prefs for USB/Serial Adapter on Windows:

19.2K Baud, FIFO Buffers Maxed, COM4, Hardware Flow control, 8-N-1

Amiga Explorer packet size and Max Retries on EACH side is 512/100.

I can certainly try a different cable, but would welcome some brand/model suggestions as I am not handy enough to make it myself... though given that it works sometimes, I am hard pressed to think it's a cable issue.

As a point of reference, this is an A3K 25MHz 030 with 2MB/16MB and only basics beyond OS3.1 installed (MagicWB, MUI, BlitzBlank, ToolsDaemon, MagicMenu, LacePointer, DOSPrefs, PointerEyes, VisualPrefs, PatchWB).

Thanks!

[Kernel]

The more research I do, the more I think it's the cable... but every DB9F to DB25F  NULL MODEL cable I find on the net either has the same pin-out as the cable I currently have, or doesn't list the pin-out.

Current cable looks like this from the DB9 to DB25:

1 to 4&5 (DCD to RTS&CTS)
2 to 2 (RD to TD)
3 to 3 (TD to RD)
4 to 6 (DTR to DSR)
5 to 7 (SG to SG)
6 to 20 (DSR to DTR)
7&8 to 8 (RTS&CTS to DCD)
9 to 22 (RI to RI)
G to G

From the Amiga Explorer Documentation, it needs to look like this from DB9 to DB25:

1&6 to 20 (DCD&DSR to DTR)
2 to 2 (RD to TD)
3 to 3 (TD to RD)
4 to 6+8 (DTR to DSR&DCD)
5 to 7 (SG to SG)
7 to 5 (RTS to CTS)
8 to 4 (CTS to RTS)

Only the RD, TD, and SG pins appear to be the same between the Amiga Explorer pinout and the cable I have that's supposed to be a "standard".

I'm going to post this to Cloanto as well.  Perhaps they'll be able to shed some light on it

[Kernel]

Ok so I'll just keep documenting what I've seen thus far and if someone jumps in, all the better.

I found the Advanced Serial Debugging page of the AmigaOS Documentation wiki and have successfully brought up a PuTTY session on Windows and a NComm session on the Amiga and am able to type on the Windows screen and see it appear on the amiga and vice versa.

So now I'm even more confused why it doesn't work properly with the Amiga Explorer.

[Kernel]

I may have solved this...  Here is where I've landed after much turmoil and determination...

Special Hardware:

USB/Serial Adapter: TRENDnet USB 2.0 to RS-232 DB9 Serial Converter, TU-S9

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007T27H8/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

NULL Modem Cable: SF Cable, 10ft DB9 Female to DB25 Female Null Modem Cable

Pin Out: 1-4+5, 2-2, 3-3, 4-6, 5-7, 6-20, 7+8-8, 9-22, G-G

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006W0I58Q/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

PC Side:

Windows 7 Ultimate; TU-S9 is plugged directly into a USB port ON THE MOTHERBOARD - this is important because when plugged into a USB hub (Belkin thumb hub, powered or not), I would continually receive COM errors no matter what the settings were.

The COM port used by the TU-S9 is setup as follows under Device Manager - 15200 BPS, 8-N-1, Hardware Flow control; Use FIFO buffers is enabled and both Transmit and Receive buffers are at the max.

Amiga Explorer is set to the same COM as the TU-S9 with a Speed of 38400.  Anything higher would result in COM errors.

Amiga Side:

Serial Prefs - 19200 Baud, 8-N-1, RTS/CTS, 65,536 Input Buffer Size

AExplorer: All defaults except SERBAUD tooltype is set to 38400

I've successfully been able to browse the Amiga drives w/o a COM error now (at least none popping up and stopping me) including opening some files from the Amiga (lha mostly)... MUI being one of them which took approximately 12 minutes to copy to eh PC before it opened.  Not stellar by any means however is lends credence to my setting finally being stable.

I did intentionally try to browse a folder on the Amiga from the PC - multiple times - while the MUI archive was being opened and was greeted with the popup "There has been a conflict accessing the Amiga Explorer resources" however this makes perfect sense and it did *NOT* seem to cause any problem with the MUI archive opening.  I even used lha on the Amiga side to view the MUI archive while it was copying and still no issue.

Hope it stays this way - fingers crossed!

Note - I *DO* have both DD and HD floppies in this A3K so of course can use those as a method to copy files... this Amiga Explorer battle was more of an exercise for me to ensure this aging A3K is still viable.