🚀 go-pugleaf

Darren Reed <avalon@caligula.anu.edu.au> wrote in message
news:38c3bfdd@clarion.carno.net.au...
>
> Is the "type-411" case the old case which housed the original CD-ROM
> drives shipped back in the days of the SS2, etc ?  I suspect not as
> my attempts to mount anything but that Sun CD-ROM drive in them have
> come to naught over the years...

What is the problem? I have several of these cases in use with other
devices, including Plextor and Pioneer CD-ROM drives and Sony DDS2 tape
drive.

Mostly the new device will go straight in with no problems. Sometimes the
50-pin cable is too short to reach the connector on the device, because of
the way the cable does a 180 degree twist. Here are two possible
work-arounds.

The first is to turn upside down the pcb which holds the two external bus
connectors. The disadvantage is that the connector for the scsi id button
then fouls the connector for supplying termpower to the external connectors,
so that only one of these features can be used. Typically the device will
supply termpower to the bus anyway (and anyway the scsi specs make it
optional for an external device to supply termpower at all). Alternatively
the device can usually be jumpered to set the scsi id number without using
the external button selector.

The other workaround is to replace the cable with one that is a couple of cm
longer. This requires great care not to mangle the connector on the plate.

The interesting question is why Sun designed these things with twist in the
cable. Early devices like the Archive 2150s tape drive had the connector
upside down relative to what was later the standard. The SunCD also had its
connector "wrong" way up, but whether that was the Sony standard of the day
or a special modification for Sun I'm not sure (although I think the closely
related Apple CD-150 also had its connector "wrong" way up). Every 50-pin,
half-height or smaller, hard drive I have ever seen has its connector
"right" way up, but nevertheless the closed 411 boxes also have the twist in
the cable. Why?

Trevor