I was going through a box and found a cable that I cant remember what it came with. I was wondering if someone may know what it was for or could be used for. its basicly a normal serial cable on one end and a headphone plug (male) on the other. Thats it. Thanks!

How many of those bands are on the non-DB9 end (the minijack)? I have no idea what to call them, but with a normal audio minijack cable, they're the things that easily indicate whether it's stereo or mono.

I can really only give you answers relating to what I have. Off the top of my head, I know I have two similar cables. One is a cable so Tivo can control another box over serial. Of course, very few SAT boxes I've seen actually have a DB9 port. At one point I had the need for such a box, and could only find the type that had serial over some sort of RJ11 port. If you've got a standalone Tivo, this is what I'd guess the cable is for.

The other one I have is even less likely, and is the data cable for my early version of the Philips Pronto.

The Tivo cable has, I believe, one band on the minijack end. The Pronto cable, on the other hand, has three bands.

Mine has 2 black bands or 3 metal ones pending on how you look at it. I do have a Tivo so that must have been where this came from. Thanks!

I think my first digital camera (640 x 480 casio) used a cable like that. no, I'm sure of it.

hth

3 metal sections i.e. 3 connections. Serial port connector on the other end would point to a TX, RX and GND as the three signals.

So it's for a device that is probably fairly small (hence the 3.5mm connector) that requires an RS232 serial connection (and thus low data rate) for config or setup.

Could be anything.
Old digital camera (as mentioned, before USB got big)
GPS

It won't be for large amounts of data though.

The TiVo and Pronto cables are the same. Both have 3 "bands" on the 3.5mm jack as you need TX, RX and Gnd.

Ah, I see. I hadn't even looked at the Tivo cable in years, as it never had any use to me.

I use that cable setup with my Tivo. Since I have a digital cable box WITH a DB-9 connector on the back, it is much faster, prettier, and more reliable than the IR cables.

yea it came from my tivo. I just wish I could actually use it with my box. I have to use the IR Blaster things and it really sux. My cable box doesnt have a serial port it has a USB port in the front. thats it. Its a Scientific Atlanta Explorer 2200 for Comcast Digital Cable. Is there a way to use the USB port? Thanks!

I have an OLD Sony VCR with flying erase head and editing abilities. It came with a cable just like that for controlling the VCR via Sony's "S Control" interface (a headphone jack) and the serial port on a PC.

We have some Canon DC210 digital cameras at work that use those cables for serial (slow!) downloads.

Hope this helps.

Yes I had a DC210 with a lead like that, I gave up transferring photos over serial and got a PCMCIA adaptor as I didn't own a computer with USB ports at the time.

In fact the dumbass burglars stole it even though it was completely buggered.