On 08/09/2019 11:05 PM, Douglas Taylor via cctech
wrote:
I have a question about cable length - any
electrical engineers in
the house?
Connected a Qualstar 1260 tape drive to an Emulex TC02 qbus tape
controller in a pdp-11/53.? The interface is pertec with 2 50 pin
cables.
When I use a pair of short flat ribbon cables, 18 and 30 inches each,
it works.? Under RT11 I can INIT, Copy, DUMP, do a Directory.
It doesn't work when I use a pair of 5 foot long flat ribbon cables.?
Are they too long?? Do I need twisted pair type of cable?? Is it
possibly a termination problem?
I have used cables about 20 feet long without trouble.? The 2 50-pin
cables is the Pertec formatted interface, which is really forgiving.?
Does you drive have terminators in both ends of the cable (both at the
TC02 end and the drive end)?
Now, I will mention that I have ONLY used twisted-pair ribbon cables
with both flavors of interface, never straight ribbon cable.
Jon
I haven't checked to see if there are terminators (Arnold the
Terminator) on either end.? I did check the long cables for continuity
and found no problems.? It may be an EMI problem. Would folding the
excess cable up and covering with anti-static plastic help?
Doug