10 Apr
2001
10 Apr
'01
9 p.m.
What's causing all the confusion here is the nomenclature. First of all,
there's only one Centronics connector I've ever seen and that's a
36-conductor
type. It was made for Centronics, which was at one time, a pretty good printer
maker, though the Centronics line was pretty much killed off by the much better
and less costly substitutes imported for the PC market some years before there
even existed any notion of a standard for SCSI. The old SCSI-1 uses a
50-position connector that looks like the Centronics type. Prior to SCSI fame,
it was, and still is, widely used in the telecom business. Not being a telecom
type, I'm not aware of a generic name for that type of connector.
SCSI, however, in its various versions, uses connectors ranging from the
well-known and popular DB25 ( and a special smaller variant for APPLEs ) to the
now-popular 80-position SCA. The popular name of "SCSI-II" connector has
become
associated with the really small, fragile, and highly impractical 50-position
type common on CDR's etc, though I've seen it applied to the 68-pin WIDE SCSI
connector also commonly called a SCSI-III connector (don't ask me why).
Does anybody really know what's what in this context. It would really be nice
if the standard would name these connectors, but, last time I looked, it hand't
yet.
Dick
----- Original Message -----
From: "Billy D'Augustine" <azog(a)azog.org>
To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2001 6:07 PM
Subject: Re: 50 pin SCSI to 50 pin centronics
I have an external SCSI drive, which I want to connect
to the external SCSI
port of my VAX 4000/60. The SCSI drive has a 50 pin connector. The VAX has a
50 pin centronics female. I'd like a cable to go between the two.
My point in posting was to avoid having to construct a cable (which I've
done previously, and no longer have the cable), or purchase one at inflated
prices.
By 50 pin SCSI do you mean the 50 pin header on
the drive? The 50 pin
Centronics IS SCSI-1 as far as I know. If you wish to go from a 50 pin
SCSI-1 (centronics) to a 50 pin female header (as what goes to the drive)
then just get a 50 conductor ribbon, then a female IDC/IDS header and an
IDC/IDS centronics connector. Use a workbench vise carefully to crimp them
down and make sure pin 1 of the header is connected to pin 1 of the
Centronics.