RS232 programming cable spec

[FFMan]

I was (perhaps mistakenly) under the impression that an RS232 programming cable just needed pins 2,3,4,5 straight male-female but i have a cable that purports to be a serial extension that doesn't work.

Where am I going wrong ?

[dkinzer]

Where am I going wrong ?

It is correct that only pins 2-5 of a 9-pin cable are needed. The way to diagnose this problem is to use an ohmmeter to check the end-to-end continuity of each conductor of the suspect cable.

A multimeter (which includes the ohmmeter function) is one of the essential tools for working with microcontrollers and other electronics.

[FFMan]

yeah i have meters and a scope etc so i'll check the cable. it was sold as an rs232 extension so it should have worked - pesky thing.