The Macintosh serial cable (Mini-DIN-8, 590-0552-A)

So I’ve been looking for Mac serial cables for this project. I have found a cheap-enough supplier, bought 24 of them, plugged the stuff in, and it didn’t work. It’s cabled straight. So, this “Pro Signal 8-Pin Male-Male Printer Lead for ImageWriter II & Deskwriter (2m, 8W)” is NOT the correct cable. It’s cabled straight. This “6ft Mini-DIN8 M/M MAC to Imagewriter II Printer Cable” is NOT a Mac to ImageWriter II printer cable. It’s cabled straight. The Macintosh serial cable is wired null-modem, and the ImageWriter II is wired to accomodate that null-modem cable, DTE / DCE notwithstanding. The idea was that this unique cable, reference 590-0552-A, allowed to connect a Mac to an ImageWriter II, another Mac, a Quicktake camera, etc, without having to check which cable was which. This is the actual wiring of an actual Macintosh serial cable: As usual, iec.net gets it right, but their shipping costs are horrendeus to Europe. So, my little adventures in hardware land is now taking me to……