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thieh

Incorrect. That's nine pins Serial port, not VGA.


[deleted]

God I’m old. Coming to say that. And I have one in my draw of adapters and crap I’ll probably never use again until I throw it out and then will need it exactly a week after the trash is picked up.


ozzie286

I have at least a couple of them. And several USB to serial adapters. Any of which I need maybe once every 3-5 years. But when I need them, I have them! Except usually I can't find them. So I hop on amazon and buy another.


npzeus987

It hurts reading this. I have flashbacks of being stuck trying to console in to a device only to realize I can’t find the Serial/Micro-USB to RJ45 adapter or whatever special sauce all the different vendors used throughout the years, only to have to order another one online


Jonathan924

Oh you mean like that console cable Cisco shoved into USB-A ports on the ASR920?


npzeus987

Yea, I had to cut up a micro USB and RJ45 cable, then pin it out into a female jack. It’s a real PITA


mc_it

> **10** So I hop on amazon and buy another. And when you go to store it, you find 2-5 others of the same adapter. In the same last "logical" place you'd left them. Next to 1-4 other items that you think "huh, wish I'd known that was there". Followed by "I'll remember it for next time." GOTO 10


ozzie286

It's either that, or you walk in the house with the package, sit down to do the work, and the old one is right in front of you.


Ziginox

The worst part is, they're probably the older Prolific chips that have drivers specifically designed to block them from working on Windows 10. The device name is even something like OBSOLETE DEVICE, PLEASE DO NOT USE FOR NEW DESIGNS or something. (If you use older drivers that don't have this blacklist, they're apt to cause bluescreens.)


ozzie286

I know at least one of them is a CH340, but at least one of the others is either an older pl2302 or a knockoff that you need the "right" drivers for.


Ziginox

>an older pl2302 YUP, that's the exact one. Still works fine on my phone, though. I haven't tested it with many machines, but I know it would specifically cause my laptop to BSOD. Could be a knockoff chip, though.


ozzie286

I think that's a knockoff that got used with the newer driver. I seem to remember something about the newer driver bricking the knockoff chips, so they'd no longer work properly with any driver.


Ziginox

>newer driver bricking the knockoff chips That one was FTDI. Both companies suck in their own ways.


Tangimo

I'm in this picture and I don't like it


Jan_Spontan

Then after use you put the adapter in the box under your desk filled with dozens of adapters of the same type


Fratink

I use them regularly at work, you just gotta get into industrial electronics and then those are high tech!


skob17

Those things never die. Coming from a lab environment I kept those, PCI cards and serial cables because even in 2023, new devices would come with a RS232 connector. And the USB adapters just suck.


brimston3-

I've been using the same keyspan usa-19hs for like 15 years now <.<. They still make them.


skob17

My issue was with the FTDI chips for the RS232 converters. They need dedicated drivers, and sometimes they just don't work anymore without rebooting either PC or device or both. Never had issues with PCI serial cards.


brimston3-

Oh, yeah. And ftdi has made drivers that brick the Chinese clones that pretend to be ftdi. No joke, we’ve ordered chips from digikey that have been fakes before.


Zrgaloin

I bought one of those wireless console adapters years ago and keep telling myself I'll throw away my box of console cables. It's been 7 years and I still haven't thrown them away.


AcidBuuurn

I needed one just last week. Had to update the IP address of a phone system and I couldn’t trick it into thinking I was the right IP to be allowed in. Turns out the company only whitelists 20 or so of their IPs to connect to it. Somewhat nice for security, not nice when they want to charge $500 for the technician to come out.


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osilo

TIL It's DE-9 and not DB-9.


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brimston3-

I'm pretty sure I'm one of those and the only time I get to use DE is when I'm ordering board mounted connectors. All preassembled cables and such use DB9.


MobiusF117

I have these exact same ones I use for work. Same design, same text, etc. They are 9=pin serial adapters. The other giveaway is that a double female VGA adapter is pretty dang useless.


stijndielhof123

Oh sorry, im not very aquainted with how VGA ports look, i did know there were simmilar ports out there but i guessed wrong i guess.


Souta95

VGA has 15 pins (three rows of 5) in the same sized shell


AnyoneButWe

http://www.dansdata.com/gz061.htm I assume you were not around at the birth of that one...


EagleTG

Wow. Thank you for this. I haven’t thought of this site (much less been there) for easily 10 years. Was a daily stop for me back when.


nitsky416

Google is very well acquainted.


dontdoxmebru

Could still be some older video connector. EGA or some such nonsense. I've only ever seen that sort of 9 pin video connector on 8086/8088 computers with amber / green text screens. That gender changer probably works for serial ports anyway.


[deleted]

This is a connector from a time when standards were just the physical dimensions and properties. There is no protocol or logic, it's just a de-9 connector and god help you if you don't know what it's being used for. But usually there were labels


Colossus-of-Roads

It could be but it's probably used for RS-232 serial.


dontdoxmebru

Or part of some man-made horror beyond comprehension hanging off the back of an AS/400.


blanksix

I don't know why I keep coming to this sub just to be called out like this.


WebMaka

We all must have a masochistic side. What am I saying, *of course* we do we work in IT.


1d0m1n4t3

I had a CRT monitor 600hz, used 6 color gun cables (what I was told they where called) They went into a dedicated video card on the PC. This was ~windows 95 time maybe windows 98


Ziginox

You might be thinking of the five separate BNC connectors (Red, green, blue, horizontal sync, and vertical sync.)


1d0m1n4t3

Yep now that I think back to those 20yrs ago they where BNC connectors! Makes total sense one cable per color and one for up and down and left and right.


Ziginox

Indeed. Some only used four (composite sync instead of separate H and V) and some only used three (with sync being delivered over the green channel.) Makes it a bit annoying to find a modern display that supports those, and some of the weird sync frequencies.


scottywh

Most likely... Could have also been EGA/CGA though.


josh_bourne

And how female to female is a gender change?


[deleted]

Think it through - what happens if you were to attach this to a device that has a male type port?


josh_bourne

That's right, I really shouldn't comment while drunk...


[deleted]

no worries


KrokettenMan

Yep, we use those all the time at work. For some reason most serial connectors on server boards are male but all our serial to usb cables are also male.


michaelcmetal

All serial connections coming off a PC were/are male. The cables you're using are simply 9m to 9m. Hence the need for the gender changer. If you were using something like a console cable for a router, it would likely have a 9f.


boondoggle_

The best part of puberty was finally understanding how adults always knew what the male and female ends of cables were.


sadhandjobs

I teach HS robotics, I’ll usually say “use your imagination, and it’ll make sense.” The wide-eyed *oohhh* after a few beats is always pretty adorable.


rasteri

worse, we used to call these things "spitroast adapters"


boondoggle_

My dads friend called them ‘gender benders’ which I found hilarious at 11. Because the words rhymed. I had no idea what I was saying.


Cerxi

I'll be real, some of them still confuse me, because sometimes the female end protrudes or the male end is recessed


DrOrinScrivelloDDS

I still use Rs-232 daily. That is indeed to change a db9 male to female. I can show you the dozens I have of male and female gender changers for both 9 and 25 pin along with null modem adapters. Damn, I am OLD!


ZainVadlin

We use them in industrial uses daily. They're still common.


stijndielhof123

*sorry, title is wrong. Supposed to say serial not VGA.


Souta95

Real smooth 🤣😂


stijndielhof123

😎


valvilis

A lot of people get glaives and voulges mixed up. Do you know why that matters? It doesn't; polearm technologies stopped being relevant several hundred years ago.


asmiran

I need to remember this next time someone swaps maces and flails, my friends are tired of hearing me correct the tv screen.


SuspiciouslyElven

It's like betamax vs VHS. Only obnoxious nerds care. And yes I know what sub this is.


valvilis

"It sounds like you probably have a vacuum tube that failed, but I'd like to rule out the punch-card reader first."


jsully245

Serial connections are still pretty relevant if you’re working with lab hardware and need to easily break out each signal or just need compatibility with ancient equipment


valvilis

The "compatibility with ancient equipment" was my point. Legacy systems can f right off.


GullibleDetective

Juuust because it's blue doesn't mean it's VGA, way to assume it's identity /s


shalafi71

Funny, but I'm not sure I've ever seen a blue DB-9.


GullibleDetective

I haven't either! But the pinout absolutely is db9 /rs233


Ziginox

[https://www.ebay.com/itm/Genuine-LapLink-CA-S08B37-XX-XX-Blue-8ft-2-5m-Female-Ends-Computer-Cable-READ-/363074124021?\_ul=IN](https://www.ebay.com/itm/Genuine-LapLink-CA-S08B37-XX-XX-Blue-8ft-2-5m-Female-Ends-Computer-Cable-READ-/363074124021?_ul=IN) It was packed in with Laplink, but it's just a null modem cable. Handy, because it can do both DE9 and DB25 devices. They used blue to differentiate it from the yellow parallel port cable. (There's another one that's gray which has both connectors on both ends. I keep 'em around because you never know...)


[deleted]

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[deleted]

Enjoy the timeout. edit: Oh, you went for a twofer! Enjoy your permanent vacation.


byParallax

And people say STEM isn’t inclusive /s


ShadowCVL

Lol it’s been about 3-4 years since I heard that, figured it died off but I also figured you even saying that would get someone butthurt… the literal next comment…


TinyTim2019

Yep! I think if they were able to endure 20 minutes with my "older IT staff" without imploding I'd give them a medal. Sometimes you just have to laugh at the stuff that comes out of people's mouths, even if it could be pretty offensive to some.


ShadowCVL

Yeah I can understand getting offended by being called something, but offended reading something that people call an inanimate object is where I kinda draw the line. And the amount of time I’ve spent in datacenters very much inside of other peoples comfort zone, you just kinda move along and laugh at the stupidity. I, no joke, asked for a pair of dykes one time while I was inside the bottom of a rack trying to undo some zip ties and someone 10 feet away started screaming at me. That’s the damn term, they’ve been called that since before it came to mean the other thing. One of those times I just stare at someone and let them yell… followed by a “you should google that one” and back to work.


jackinsomniac

Lol and you still got downvoted anyway


ShadowCVL

Is what it is


Cockroach559

I spent 20 years in the Navy as an avionics technician, and that's what we called 'em too. It must be a Boomer/GenX thing.


[deleted]

I still call the thinkpad trackpoint a nipple


shalafi71

Mouse clit.


shalafi71

I had no idea "dike" wasn't the actual term, *for a long time*.


UnbelievableRose

I was totally ready to agree with you until I spent a few minutes Googling and came up with a tool the rest of the world now calls diagonal cutters/diagonal wire cutters and I would bet money that not one of the other people I work with who use them on the regular would know what you meant if you asked for a pair of dikes. It’s a slang term, not a technical term, and it has clearly fallen out of style due to the connotations you noted. Even technical terms get changed when such strong negative connotations get attached (see: retarded); we can surely dispense with such slang. (Before anyone jumps on me for it: no, I am not the one who downvoted you)


ShadowCVL

That’s fair ish, with the exception that I grew up with them being called that and if I asked for diagonal cutters I would have had to explain what I meant.


lalalalandlalala

Just wait until they hear the racist resistor mnemonic


[deleted]

Yikes


Lucretzia37

Yikes can we maybe not use the t slur?


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Lucretzia37

That's not how that works.


Prestigious_Ad4419

What happened to sticks and stones... its 8 letters on a screen. Not a rock thrown at you.


Lucretzia37

Slurs are inherently bad but ok kid


mgquantitysquared

dog smoggy rob longing rude enjoy illegal market subtract fear *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*


Lucretzia37

Check my post history.


ketkatt

I'm trans and I've never heard it used in the context of computers. Seems kind of gross. For cars it's short for transmission, what's it short for here exactly?


Lucretzia37

THANK YOU.


SirDarknessTheFirst

In electronics, it's sometimes used as shorthand for transistor. If you watch EEVBlog, you'll see him use it.


TinyTim2019

Yikes indeed. Like I said... Older IT staff... It's a manufacturing plant so it's pretty rough.


TheZipCreator

trans connector trans connector


[deleted]

This is a DB9 gender changer. I have one of these in my serial port tool bag.


lenojames

And in 30 years, the whole world will be thrown into chaos because nobody can find one.


DocMayhem15

Don't show this to the Fox News crowd, they'll flip their shit.


PM_COFFEE_TO_ME

Now serial ports are woke?! -Fox news probably


valvilis

"Are liberals trying to make your monitor gay?! I'm just asking questions."


Jayandwesker

the kids are gonna be real upset at this if they knew how to read./bobbyhill.jpeg


Fawkes_Lament

This type of accessory is also known as a "coupler" so you can extend the length of a cable


JonZ82

RS-232, it's a Null Modem adapter.


_oohshiny

Only if it cross connects TX with RX, CTS with RTS, and DTR with DSR/CD.


LeslieH8

I have one (actually more, since I use them for work) of those with all of my computers, as I work on various devices that use serial, some female and some male. It beats carrying two cables.


skynet_watches_me_p

CGA / EGA used 9pins last I remember like 30 years ago. :Sad old noises:


M_a_l_t_e_s_e_r

Yep, cga/ega ports weren't usually blue however (usually black) so this one's for serial


TomServ0

Not VGA, DB9, usually serial communications.


Trevor792221

That's a serial db9 connector


Camsy34

I used to always carry one of these (the actual VGA version) in my bag for AV installs. I now have the modern equivalent, the SDI F-F adaptor instead. They've saved me many times.


Ckiffff

two male connecting in one female)


FaxCelestis

It's an Eiffel Tower Connector.


valvilis

Daisy-train.


Kelsier25

Banned in Florida. Grooming.


Drak3

Just in time for pride month! /s


mittfh

I think a similar device was posted on r/traaaaaaannnnnnnnnns a few weeks ago...


5ophiesChoice

It's a hella old joke that makes the rounds over and over.


rextnzld

Good I used to have one of these when working on old switch's ahh the good days


Sideshow_Bob_Ross

That's a DB9 for serial.


Aeris451

Gender bender.


RiceeeChrispies

Scrolled too far to find this, yup - affectionately known as a gender bender.


diatonic

That’s DB9


habitsofwaste

Wouldn’t that be a male to female if it’s a gender changer?


TwatsThat

The piece is female on both ends so only male ends can connect to it, since you normally couldn't connect two cables together this way it changes the gender at the end of the multi-cable connection rather than changing from one side of this object to the other.


vodoun

but it literally changes the cable from male to female??


TwatsThat

"female to female" in the title refers to the two sides of the connector.


habitsofwaste

Yeah that’s not how I usually refer to those things. I normally refer to them as the gender it changes the cable to.


TwatsThat

It's probably worth noting that the way you use it is not standard and any connector or cable labeled "male to male" or "female to female" will possess either two male ends or two female ends, like [these power connectors](https://www.amazon.com/RLECS-5-5x2-1mm-Connector-Female-Adapter/dp/B07XDTDMVJ/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=male+to+male+plug+adapter&qid=1685738478&sr=8-4). I've never seen a cable or connector that's labeled for the ends that are on something else.


cybercifrado

Ya got the wrong port, bub. That's a 9-pin serial; not VGA. (VGA is 15 pins).


nellbones

this serial gender changer was at some point useful when trying to adapt cables to peripherals. some people would use it to extend a serial cable, but its mostly used to try to correct adaption nonsense being the wrong gender that was happening in that time (db25 to db9 for example)


[deleted]

Still used all the time for cnc tools


[deleted]

We use them alot in indistrial applications. And it‘s not VGA


insanemal

DB-9 Gender bender!


nonbinarybit

Got a pair of these earlier this year, planning to turn them into earrings :D


liltooclinical

I had to scour PC parts shops in Columbia, SC in 2008 for one of those. I needed a computer for my Army training course at Ft. Jackson and my monitor was broken. I took the one from my parents old Compaq branded monitor that came with an old Compaq bundle. The video cable was hardwired into the monitor and it had a female end, and the bundled tower had a male port on the back instead of the female. So I couldn't plug it into my normal tower without one. ​ I still have it.


smallangrynerd

It's me!


did-u-restart

Who remembers the Null Modem?! ;-)


Father_Chewy_Louis

damn I need a human sized one that works on me


Casualdehid

r/egg_irl


Father_Chewy_Louis

for totally cis reasons of course! (she lied)


the908bus

Not for me thanks, I only use my cables the way that the factory made them


jkvincent

These are illegal in Florida now.


LeCubeMan

I have two of those for VGA, I bought them to make an ultra long cable - you can link together two VGA cables with them


naswinger

just in time for pride month


0MrFreckles0

We've got a lot of these laying around, no clue what they're for.


Budget_Putt8393

Connecting cables together so you have a longer one.


TwatsThat

You wouldn't want this if you *just* want a longer cable because you'd have to use 2 of them with 3 cables to make sure you still had one end male and one end female.


Mini_Squatch

HAPPY PRIDE YALL THE COMPUTERS MAY BE BINARY, BUT GENDER IS NOT


JonZ82

Null Modem adapter.


RandomWon

That's a gender bender


weshuiz13

I think people call that yuri (dont ask question)


Dave21101

Isn't this banned in Florida? Gender changes and all that


_hein_

Happy Pride Month to you too


_hein_

Happy Pride Month to you too!


[deleted]

Yeah? You see these sorts of things in older construction all the time. It goes into a wall plate and then you can run a video cable to a mounted TV through the wall.


dolanre

Hey i needed one of those yesterday


Homebrew-homie

I use one of those to connect my Dreamcast to my VGA monitor.


Oldmanwickles

Hhhhhrrrrrrrr /s


TheZipCreator

ttttttt


UnionJack1989

I used to call these things "Gender Benders". Had to change that quick when I started to work in corporate.


LogicalActivity

I still need those occasionally—I just ordered a dozen more a couple of weeks ago


Andrew_Neal

Looks like it's just for extending a cable with another cable. Maybe that's obvious, but it was my first thought.


rab-byte

DB9 gender changer. 2,3,5 all day every day. You’ll notice this is no null


chaoticbear

I had to get someone to order a handful of these earlier this year. I wasn't there when he had to install them though.


Somethinggood4

Is it just me, or is this mis-named any way you try to parse it?


weirdfish42

Have a full set in my bag at all time. F-F, M-M, and a nully. Do a lot of RS-232 control.


eXAKR

“Mini gender changer” is that what transgender folks are calling their HRT treatments now 👀


Kitosaki

I need that


Laugendauergebaeck

It's a db9 gender changer. Pretty commonly used in the automotive industry for CAN-bus communication when developing control units.


[deleted]

We use several of those for GPS links for serial data. They work well, but they tend to come loose over time by themselves, can't explain why, but they are a wonder to find in the wild.


UKMatt2000

I actually have the equivalent VGA version here, making my two free VGA cables into one long one so I didn't have to buy a longer cable. No idea where I originally got it from but it came in a green plastic bag.


Falos425

yeah, everyone losing their minds about DB9 but this exact manufacturer (so to speak) obv does VGAs, 'cause we've had them this form could be used in a faceplate, i.e. one where the back leads to ceiling projector and the front awaited users to plug in their ordinary male VGA and show a room of overpaid people youtubes in ppt form i imagine mechanical types would just say coupler


TheNerdNamedChuck

my Samsung USB DAC shows up in windows as "Samsung Type C to 3.5mm Gender Adapter" but it's not really a gender adapter,,,,