Cabling and Connectors

RJ45 pin-out

With the exception of SD4001/2 and CM4001 all Opengear console servers have RJ45 serial port connectors. However these connectors come in a selection of pin-outs.

There are three alternate RJ45 connector pin-outs. Some console server models have -02 Cisco pinouts. Others have -00 Opengear Classic. Others are available in a choice of-00 Opengear Classic, -01 Avocent/Cyclades or -02 Cisco (and the pin-out must be specified in the part number at the time of order). These three pin-outs are shown. below.

Opengear Classic pin-out (option -00)

PIN	SIGNAL	DEFINITION	DIRECTION
1	RTS	Request To Send	Output
2	DSR	Data Set Ready	Input
3	DCD	Data Carrier Detect	Input
4	RXD	Receive Data	Input
5	TXD	Transmit DataCTS	Output
6	GND	Signal Ground	NA
7	DTR	Data Terminal Ready	Output
8	CTS	Clear To Send	Input

Avocent/Cyclades pin-out (option -01)

Easy to replace Cyclades products, for use with rolled RJ-45 cable.

PIN	SIGNAL	DEFINITION	DIRECTION
1	RTS	Request To Send	Output
2	DTR	Data Terminal Ready	Output
3	TXD	Transmit Data	Output
4	GND	Signal Ground	NA
5	CTS	Clear To Send	Input
6	RXD	Receive Data	Input
7	DCD	Data Carrier Detect	Input
8	DSR	Data Set Ready	Input

Cisco pin-out (option -02)

Straight through RJ-45 cable to equipment such as Cisco, Juniper, SUN, and more...

PIN	SIGNAL	DEFINITION	DIRECTION
1	CTS	Clear To Send	Input
2	DSR	Data Set Ready	Input
3	RXD	Receive Data	Input
4	GND	Signal Ground	NA
5	GND	Signal Ground	NA
6	TXD	Transmit Data	Output
7	DTR	Data Terminal Ready	Output
8	RTS	Request To Send	Output

Why so many RJ45 pin-outs

RS232 pin-out standards exist for both DB9 and DB25 connectors, however there's no pinout standard for RS232 using RJ45 connectors. So custom adaptors and cables are often required to interconnect with the serially managed servers, router, switches or power devices. Suppliers of console servers have also adopted a variety of pin-out configurations as can be seen from Zonker's Serial Signals Page on the conserver site.

Opengear's console servers were designed with an "Opengear Classic" pinout which was the same RJ45 pinout as the Avocent /Equinox brand console server. Our top end IM4200 family was then released with support for the three most popular RJ5 pin-outs (Clasic, Avocent/Cyclades and Cisco) and more recent ACM5000 releases have standardized on the Cisco pin-out

If you need to connect to a particular serial device or replace a competitors console server an Opengear cable adaptor is generally available off-the-shelf.