Josh Koffman wrote:
> Hi all. I'm working on a board that has a specific use at the moment,
> but I'd like to leave things a bit open for other future uses as well.
> At the moment, there will need to be a connector that talks to a
> device via RS232. It's low speed (9600bps) and short distance (under
> 10 feet, likely under 3 feet). To keep my options open for the future
> (and to aid my design), I'd like to use RJ45 connectors to carry the
> RS232 signal. There is a standard for this (EIA-561, mentioned here
> about 25% of the way down the page, but I've seen it elsewhere as
> well) so I feel ok setting it up. I believe that the original intent
> was to use telephone style cable with these RJ45 connectors. What
> would happen if I used straight through CAT5 ethernet cable?
> Electrically I think it'd be ok, and since RS232 isn't a differential
> signal the pairs shouldn't have to be matched.
>
> How wrong am I?

Seems reasonable to me.  Just make sure that each signal (receive, transmit)
is on its own twisted pair with the other wire of the pair being ground.  In
other words, the minimum RX/TX lines will use up half the CAT5 cable.


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