Electroknit Serial Connections
From Antitronics
Connecting to Brother Knitting Machines
The external Disk Drive Connection
Some models of knitting machine interface with an external floppy disk drive. By using this interface with the knitting machine, we can save and restore patterns from the machine.
The interface is a serial data connection at 9600 bits per second, with flow control signals, but the signal voltages are not RS-232 standard.
Connector Pinout for the knitting machine and external floppy drive
The connectors on both the knitting machine and external disk are 8-pin keyed 2x8 headers with pins on on 0.1 inch centers The knitting machine and external disk drive are connected.
In this photo, there is a dot near pin one.
Here is the pinout of the drive connector on the knitting machine:
_____
| |
______|___|______
| | | | |
| 7 | 5 | 3 | 1 |
|___|___|___|___|
| | | | |
| 8 | 6 | 4 | 2 |
|___|___|___|___|
The pin numbering is shown as they are labeled on the knitting machine PCB, and does not agree with other documents I found on the web.
| Knitting Machine Connections | |||||
| Knitting Machine | Floppy Drive | ||||
| Pin | KM Signal | KM I/O | FD I/O | FD Signal | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ground | ||||
| 2 | RTS | Out --> | --> In | CTS | Inside KM tied to 5(DTR), Pulled up through 1K resistor |
| 3 | CTS | In <-- | <-- Out | DTR | |
| 4 | No Connection | <-- Out | DTR | ||
| 5 | DTR | Out --> | --> In | DSR | Inside KM tied to 2 |
| 6 | RXD | In <-- | <-- Out | TXD | |
| 7 | TXD | Out --> | --> In | ||
| 8 | RTS | Out --> | No Connection | In KM Follows state of Pin 3 (buffered) | |
