Ground Isolated Serial Connector Problem

[TulsaReefer]

I've been using an IOGear GBS301 bluetooth to serial adapter on the serial port of my ACjr to keep from having to connect my computer to it when it's in the other room. It was working fine, but the temp and pH seemed to flutter around a little, so I ordered the Ground Isolated Serial Connector and connected it up. It works fine on an old laptop that has a serial port using it. But when I connect it to the IOGear Bluetooth adapter it seems to be dead, I can still connect to the bluetooth adapter, but it seems none of the data is going through. If I remove the ground isolator, it all works fine.

Is there anything special the serial connector needs, power from the DB9 connector or something that I may be missing?

[TulsaReefer]

Looks like the problem is that the ground isolatod serial connector is a 3 wire implementation, and the bluetooth adapter requires RTS/CTS flow control to work. It works when connectred directly with the cable to the ACjr serial port because it holds pin 8 high (CTS) on the DB9 and that is enough to get the bluetooth adapter to work. Strange in that it's connected to the External Switch input on the ACjr, but it works. But the ground isolating serial adapter seems to not pass this through. I may have to look for an isolating serial connector that passes through 7 pins, though I hate have to do it, I know they make them, I've used them before on a computer project many years ago.

[kenargo]

if it's just an issue with RTS/CTS you can jumper the 2 together and that might satisfy the issue.

[TulsaReefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13473928#post13473928 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kenargo
if it's just an issue with RTS/CTS you can jumper the 2 together and that might satisfy the issue.

I was thinking the same thing, since it's the usual quick fix for tricking RTS/CTS into working if they aren't supported on one side. I jumpered the pins on the bluetooth adapter and it works fine connected to a laptop serial port for testing, sends and receives fine without CTS/RTS connected to the laptop. But as soon as I add the serial isolator inline it quits working again. The isolator works fine if I use a laptop with it connecting to the ACjr, so I'm at a bit of a loss to explain what the problem is at this point. I'll either have to dig a little deeper or just give up and get a different isolator and hope that will work. I found a 7 wire isolator for $29.95, so it may be worth getting it just to try out rather than waste hours playing around on this.