TTL serial cable: are they useless?

Hi
I bought a TTL serial to usb cable and found out it wont work with the
Newton. The mac recognizes the FDTI chipset but it is not possible to
connect via NCX. So i bought the correct cable but it left me wondering
exactly whet the difference is between the two.
They look identical.
Is the difference hardware? Like are the wires hooked up in a different
way? Could I switch them around to make it work?

Or is it a software difference and it will never work on a newton?
Who can enlighten me?
-- 
Met hartelijke groet,

Rufus Kohn
0613159031
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