10 Nov
2005
10 Nov
'05
10:01 p.m.
On Thursday 10 November 2005 16:50, David Betz wrote:
I finally got a drive select plug for my RL01 drive
and would like to
try connecting it to my 11/73 but I find that the cable that is
supposed to plug into the RLV12 controller isn't keyed so it can go
in either way. How do I tell what the correct orientation is for this
cable? I'm assuming that if I plug it in backwards I'll fry the
controller and/or drive. The only markings on the end of the cable
that connects to the controller are the manufacturers name "Berg" and
the letters A and B near one end and VV and UU near the other end.
How should this cable be inserted into the RLV12?
"A" should be near the end of the connector labelled "1" or
"A". :)
And, no, you're not going to fry anything if you hook the cable up
backwards. DEC generally did a good job of engineering things to be
fault tolerant, unlike some other companies. I've misconnected the
cable to my RL02s a few different ways trying to get it going initially
-- I don't have an authentic DEC cable, and didn't feel justified in
spending much money on a cable to connect a drive that cost me $5 to a
machine that cost me at most $20. I eventually spent $10 on buying a
terminator from a dealer, once I realized that I needed one, and
decided that it wasn't worth my time to try and build one myself. :)
Yeah, I'm a cheap bastard. That's why I have so much jun^W^Wmany
machines. I was careful, and asked the list about the chances of
killing things first though. It's always good to get confimation
you're not doing something too stupid or dangerous first, from people
that know what they're doing. :)
Pat
--
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