I have a 496 hard wired / panel mounted. Now I want to integrate the XRX. I just received the RS-232 / power cable with the 3 bare wires (power, ground, data).

What I still want is portability for the XRX. What I was planning on doing was wiring the power to a cigarette lighter plug (that way it is still fused), and run the yellow data wire with a quick disconnect, hidden behind the panel, to the 496.

The question I have is with the grounding. Would this setup work? Or does the ground have to be wired as close as possible to the 496's ground?

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

This setup does work. Actually there are 4 wires (2 for power, ground and data). Bought a cigarette lighter adapter from radioshack and soldered the new power and ground wires. Since the new cigarette lighter plug has a rubber sleeve, I was able to drill it out to accommodate the zaon wire. All the connections are inside the lighter plug. The data wire then comes back out through the sleeve. Then I made a quick disconnect for the data wire going to the 496. Works out nice. I'll post a picture of the setup.