Ask The Engineer - Can I control my Power Towers with my Cisco Router?

Question from Dan Seoane of Covad:  I want to control my powertowers from my Cisco Router with NM32 async card.  Are there any special settings I need to make?  The async ports are setup and working already.

Engineer reply:  The only things necessary for success are matching asynchronous settings and the proper cable connection.  Per the default settings of the Sentry Power Towers, the proper async settings are 9600 baud, no parity, eight (8) data bits, one (1) stop bit and no flow control.  Higher data rates are supported but keeping the rate at 9600 baud is recommended since bootup messages from the Sentry system are always sent at this rate.  Regarding cable pinouts, the Sentry Power Tower units contain two serial ports.  One port is DB9M and the other is an RJ45 type.  The RJ45 jack should be used because its pinouts properly match the pinouts of the RJ45 plug ends of the Cisco NM 32 Octal-Async cables.  Final note is that the DTR output signal from the Cisco must be asserted to allow a Sentry session to start and should be de-asserted when the connection is ended.