Hi Rick,

Those anti static pink DB9 serial port plastic caps that come with the
GTOCP3 are nice, but they are easily lost. All you need to do is
brush against
them a bit, and they are gone. Thy are really meant only for
shipping the
mount to you, and not as weather protection. However, there is
something much
better - read on.

When I worked on design rugged flight computers, and for
installation on
bulldozers (talk about vibration and dust water, and mud), we
plugged the
unused DB sockets and plugs on the connector back panel with
aluminum cover
caps held down with DB cable connector mounting screws. These are
fine if you
want a fairly permanent cover. Otherwise, some of the CONEC's DB
caps have
EMI gripping ridges, so they grip the panel connector quite well,
even without
the two DB type side screws.

Visit www.CONEC.com and click on tab:
Catalog->D-SUB Connectors->
Scroll way down the page to "Accessories/Mounting hardware for D-Sub
Connectors.

Product items #97 to # 103 on that page, give you a range of caps from
plastic, to aluminum, and even rubberized water tight. Click on the
numbered
line item to get the large picture, part numbers, and engineering
drawing
info.
They are variously called: "Dust caps, Screen caps, or Shield caps" -
depending on how rugged their connector environment.
(e.g. 99. Covered screen cap for EMI/RFI)

I would choose the EMI/RFI types - they have a tighter ribbed
ridge, so
they won't come off as easily, if you don't want to screw the caps
down
permanently.

CONEC is quite unique - nobody else makes aluminum EMI/RFI
shielding DB
connector caps (as well as the flimsy plastic ones). Worth buying
several, in
case you somehow manage to lose one.

When you order, you also have to select either a male of female
connector
cap, as well as the number of pin positions (width) of the DB panel
connector
you need to cover. I haven't seen these from any distributor like
Jameco or
Digi-Key, in the past, so you may have to deal with CONEC directly.

These are really great aluminum DB caps.
Hope this helps,
Joe

----- Original Message -----
From: "Rick Thurmond" <yahoogroups@...>
To: <ap-gto@...>
Sent: Tuesday, June 19, 2007 10:04 PM
Subject: [ap-gto] caps for the serial ports?, and a vote for
wireless LAN.

My 1200's serial port connectors have gotten a little rusty. Does
anyone know where one can get those plastic caps to cover them with?
I've not used them up until now, my friend has a program we plan to
use to track satellites and the ISS, and we're going to try it out.
And here I am with embarrassing rusty serial ports on an otherwise
beautiful mount!