Since it's cold and icy outside, I wanted to do some empeg hacking this weekend, specifically, I want to narrow down why I'm getting a *huge* volume spike on my audio overlay patch when my empeg is in the car and the tuner is active.

So to do this, I need some way of seeing debug serial output in the car. I can't get my car close enough to my computer for a serial cable, and I dont have access to a laptop.

What I do have, however, is a Casio Cassiopeia E-100 palm-sized PC running Windows CE. It's got a serial connection on it which ends in a female DB-9 conector. I downloaded a little terminal program for it, and I figured I can use that.

So the docking sled connector has a female end, and so does my WinCE palmtop. So I guess I need a gender changer with 2 male DB-9's. But my question... Do I also need it to cross over? The null modem cable that comes with the empeg is a cross-over null modem cable, but it's got female connections on both ends. Usually having too many females around isn't a problem, but in this case, I've got a bunch of female connectors and no male counterparts. (Write your own joke there.)

Here's what it looks like:

 _____________                       _____________

| Female DB9  |                     | Female DB9  |

| (Palmtop)   |  ---> ????  -->     |(sled serial)|

 \___________/                       \___________/

.
So my question is, when I go to Radio Shack ("You've got questions, we've got ridiculously expensive cables") tomorrow, what do I buy? Just a DB9 gender changer? Two gender changers for each end? I have at my disposal a regular serial cable with male and female ends (non-crossover) and the empeg-supplied null modem crossover cable with the two female ends. What's the least amount of crap I can buy at Radio shack to make this thing work?