CAN YOU PARALLEL A RS232 CROSS OVER CABLE?

[Bering C Sparky]

Is it fesable to parrallel an RS232 cable. For instance on the end that would connect to your laptop jump 5 - 2 & 3 to another 9 pin connector and plug it into a second laptop. If so could both laptops communicate with the same device connected to the other end of the cable? I want to use one laptop only to view and the other to view and write to the connected device. (FYI, the connected device will be a Woodward 723 governor/ loadsharing controler.) Thanks in advance for any replies/ BCS

[kaare_t]

RS232 specifications says you cannot do it. You could try it in a test environment but I would never use it in production.... EDIT: You can buy a cheap USB->RS232 converter with 2 ports that supports passthrough/transparent mode... You can get them very cheap these days... Edited January 13, 2012 by kaare_t

[RussB]

Or make your own by adding a few diodes to your parallel cable.