29 Jun
2001
29 Jun
'01
11:53 a.m.
On Fri, 29 Jun 2001, Tony Duell wrote:
One 'nasty' relates to the Archive Sidewinder,
a QIC tape cartridge
drive. This thing has a 4 pin power connector identical to the ones on
5.25" floppy drives, etc). Ground on the middle 2 pins, +5V where you'd
expect it, too. But the other outside pin is +24V, not +12V. I am told
that some Suns used this drive and had a special power cable for it
carrying the right voltages. Get then mixed up when assembling the
machine, and you might plug +24V into a hard disk expecting +12V. The
results, apparently, are not pleasant.
Another similar nasty:
I have a 3.25" drive that uses the same connector as a 3.5" drive, except
that the +5 and +12 pins are reversed!
Fortunately, the 3" drives that I have use the same connector and pinout
as 5.25". (which seems to be standardized)
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com