First post, by james1095
I needed a terminator for the OEM internal cable in my DECpc 486 which is unusual in that it has a male connector on the end for the missing terminator. I pretty much struck out while looking for something suitable that didn't cost a fortune so I decided to design my own. This is a simple and versatile design that costs only a few dollars to build and can be assembled with either a male or female connector depending on what you need. In theory it should fit a Centronics connector too but I haven't tried. None of the components are critical and everything needed should be widely available. I did have some minor difficulty finding the 2.85V regulator but I found them in stock at LCSC. If this ever becomes harder to come by it would be very easy to modify the design to use an adjustable regulator. All of the resistors and ceramic capacitors are standard 0603 parts and the two tantalum capacitors are 1206. The LED is a through-hole part so that it can be installed on either side of the board and that also provides a nice period-correct look in vintage machines. I have built this and verified that it works perfectly in my DEC. If anyone else builds one I'd be curious to hear any feedback.