[Tfug] Network connectors

[Choprboy]

On Friday 15 January 2010 02:10, Bexley Hall wrote:
[snip]
> First, thinking about what indicators typically are used for:
> - link established
> - collision
> - speed

You forgot a couple:
  - activity
  - duplex


> Is there a standard color scheme for the indicators?  It
> seems like LINK is typically yellow?  But, I see a few
> different choices for the speed indicator...

I rarely see collision any longer, since the days of hubs, duplex pops up more 
often. The "typical" light arrangement I see depends on how many LEDs there 
are:
 - For 2 LED jacks: right LED green for 100baseT/ yellow for 10base, left LED 
green (sometime yellow only on that side) flashing on for traffic, possibly 
yellow for half-duplex or collision.
 - For 1 LED jacks: LED green for 100base, yellow for 10base, LED flashes off 
(creating flicker) on receipt of packet.

There really isn;t any sort of standard. Some are now showing both 100base and 
10base as yellow, because its allegedly so much *slower* than 1000base 
mode... as if many of these devices could actually push/pull that much. Most 
network chips have 2 pins already for driving LED indications. Heck... even 
the PIC18F97 Im currently playing with (which has a built-in ether MAC) has 2 
pins, RA0 and RA1, that can be configured to automatically show the link 
status (up/down), speed, duplex, and/or traffic.

> Finally, is there something *more* informative that these
> indicators could be used for?

I think having port speed (slow/fast) and activity is invaluable for quick 
diagnostics. Anything more than that and your going to have to dig into 
configuration to figure out what's wrong. I simple bi-color LED show 
green/yellow for port speed and flashing for activity seems the most 
informative.


Adrian