10 Aug
2019
10 Aug
'19
10:22 a.m.
On Sat, Aug 10, 2019 at 9:46 AM Douglas Taylor via cctech
<cctech at classiccmp.org> wrote:
I bought the long cables off ebay, so they have to be good? Right? I
think the short cables came from a hamfest.
The cables can be fairly long, I remember interfacing a TU80 to an
Emulex QT14 (maybe) and the DEC cables were round and about 15 feet
long. And it worked.
It was too late last night to begin checking the long cables for
continuity, so I fired off the email instead thinking it may be a
termination problem.
Is it possible for the IDC and Card edge connectors to be put on wrong?
You would want pin 1 to map to pin 1, and so on.
Doug
If you build cables yourself without proper tools it might be easy to
end up with bad results. It takes a fair amount of force to properly
press a 50-pin connector on to a ribbon cable with even pressure.
I picked up a used 3M Scotchflex 3316 manual hand press with locator
plates for IDC and card edge connectors a few years back for a
reasonable price. It made quick work of properly pressing 50-pin IDC
connectors on to ribbon cables when I built some Pertec interface tape
drive cables. I used some Amphenol Spectra-Strip Twist 'N' Flat ribbon
cable and made a couple of cables that are about 8 feet long. I
haven't had any problems using them between an Emulex QT13 controller
and a Fujitsu M2444AC tape drive.