Certain MiniDin 6 Pinouts Cause Problems on KVM Switches

We have a lot of server room computers hooked up to Belkin 16 port switches. What we noticed is that maybe 10% of the 6 foot Belkin "all in one" cables we buy end up causing sporadic problems, such as the keyboard disappears for a given server.

We have a continuity tester, and I noticed an interesting result on these cables that maybe some engineer in the group could give me more information about.

First, according to the published standards I could find, the correct wiring of the 6 pin mouse and keyboard PS/2 cables on the minidin 6 type connector are as follows (pins one through six in order):

1=data 2=not connected 3=ground 4=+5V 5=clock 6=not connected

With all of the longer Belkin All In One cables (15 to 25ft), the 6 pins on the minidin 6 are all connected end to end, and there is no ground connection on pin 3. We have no problems with those cables.

With the cables that are causing us problems, we measured this result on the pins using our continuity tester:

1=connected 2=not connected 3=data is not connected, but ground is connected 4=connected 5=connected 6=not connected

The cables that cause us problems seem to follow the standard, whereas the cables that don't cause problems ignore the standard and just connect all pins.

Is it possible that the problem here is the ground connection on pin 3? Maybe the wiring never gets to a true ground, and there is some kind of ground loop?

If this is a possible cause for the observed symptoms, how could I confirm it?

Reply to
Will
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By "ground" you mean the plug shell? Real IBM keyboard cables use the shell connection for the ground braid and use the pin 3 for an isolated DC signal ground. Your problem could be caused because these get mixed up in some cables.

Reply to
gfretwell

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