Unusual RS232C connector on Tatung tablet, TWN-5213 CU.

You most likely need to get a break out cable that has the serial port and other things on it.. Something that you get from the manufacturer.

Jamie

Assuming more than curiosity Are the contacts sprung? If so then I made up something similar, outragiously expensive proprietary otherwise, from some scrap PC-slot card edge fingers, of right spacing. Then appropriate packing as a bit too thin as they stood and some empty surround from a regular connector. When you know all the contacts are good and the surround fits registered, glue the lot together

The more I think about it, being a tablet and all, I would bet that it's the connector for the docking station.

Jamie

I thought the same thing (really!), but said nothing because it looks like an awfully sparse interface. But you're probably right.

I was certainly going to say "how do you know it's RS232?".

My netbook from five years ago didnt' have a serial port (or parallel), I haven't noticed any tablets that mention having a serial port. I don't see the point, they'd be used with USB devices, while a serial port would only be useful if you had older equipment. I'd still want a serial port on any computer I got, but I'm not "normal".

So yes, it likely a connector for something else, rather than some odd connector for RS232.

Michael

The photo now shows the cover as well as the connector.

Also the machine is illustrated here.

The peculiar "odd connector-DE9 subminiature" is in this picture.

No doubt the function is RS232. I only wonder who made the connector.

Thanks for the replies, ... Peter E.

P.s. This TWN-5213 is illustrated here.

Regards, ... Peter E.

It's in the Hirose 3500 series.

The Hirose 3540-16P-CV should mate and Digikey offers it.

On some models, 16 positions allowed 4 connections for Ethernet and 7 or so for RS-232. That's why the RS-232 cable and the Ethernet cables could have the same connector on one end. With the back off the machine, I might find the pinout.

Any further tips are welcome.

Thanks, ... Peter E.

Using a voltmeter and an oscilloscope and measure on the pins - that might help identifying some of the pins.

Thanks Uffe. Seems that is the only way. No problem removing the screws o n the perimeter of the case. Still it remained locked together so firmly th at opening would surely break something.

Thanks again, ... Peter E.

A Hirose 3540-16P-CV(50) and conductors were assembled to allow a connection to the port marked RS232 on the Tatung TWN-5213 CU.

The OS was configured to attempt assigment of four commonly used (address, IRQ) pairs to COM1 .. COM4.

Addresses & IRQs COM1 COM2 COM3 COM4 { ConfigV24.SetIRQs 3F8H 4 2F8H 3 3E8H 4 2E8H 3 ~ } { ConfigV24.SetIRQs 3F8H 4 2F8H 3 338H 4 238H 3 ~ } { ConfigV24.SetIRQs 3F8H 4 2F8H 3 3E8H 4 2E0H 3 ~ } { ConfigV24.SetIRQs 3F8H 4 2F8H 3 220H 4 228H 3 ~ }

The machine was booted from the CF card. According to the System.Log, the assignments to COM1 and COM2 are accepted and the assignments to COM3 and COM4 fail in all cases.

Invalid address on COM3 Invalid address on COM4 Serial port addr. & IRQs COM1 COM2 COM3 COM4 ConfigV24.SetIRQs 3F8H 4 2F8H 3 000H 0 000H 0 ~ Invalid address on COM3 Invalid address on COM4 Serial port addr. & IRQs COM1 COM2 COM3 COM4 ConfigV24.SetIRQs 3F8H 4 2F8H 3 000H 0 000H 0 ~ Invalid address on COM3 Invalid address on COM4 Serial port addr. & IRQs COM1 COM2 COM3 COM4 ConfigV24.SetIRQs 3F8H 4 2F8H 3 000H 0 000H 0 ~ Invalid address on COM3 Invalid address on COM4 Serial port addr. & IRQs COM1 COM2 COM3 COM4 ConfigV24.SetIRQs 3F8H 4 2F8H 3 000H 0 000H 0 ~

If a Logitech serial mouse driver is assigned to COM1 and the system boot trace is assigned to COM2, the mouse pointer moves erratically when the screen is touched. The scope shows no signal on any pin of the Hirose connector.

If the boot trace is assigned to COM1 and the Logitech serial mouse driver is assigned to COM2, the mouse pointer is unresponsive when the screen is touched. Again the scope shows no signal on any pin of the Hirose connector.

My conclusion from these observations is that COM1 is connected to the touchscreen. COM2 appears to be present but non-functional. COM3 and COM4 do not exist in the machine or they exist and are disabled by the BIOS. Further progress appears to require information about the hardware or access to the BIOS.

Comments welcome.

Thanks, ... Peter E.