Monday, May 16, 2011

Foundry/Brocade console cable

A few months ago I managed to buy a Foundry FWS24 switch. It comes with a DB9 serial port, but it does not work with a standard rollover DB9-RJ45 cable + RJ45-DB9 adapter combo.
Turns out it needs a straight serial cable instead of a rollover, but the built-in DB9 port is male, and I don't have female-female straight cables on hand.

At first I did an ugly hack with a DB9-DB25 modem cable, but I didn't like it very much, so I sacrificed one of my baby-blue Cisco cables, cut off the RJ45 plug on the end, and crimped a new one upside-down on it (black wire to pin 8), making it a straight cable. Using that cable and a standard Cisco DB9-RJ45 adapter (74-0495-01), the Foundry box works like a charm.

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