ST-506/412 to IDE/ATA/SCSI/? adaptor

Basiclaly, yes. Use the 2-row header sockets (think of the conenctor that fits a 3.5" floppy drive) on the 'drive' end of the cables. As I said in my reply ot Chuck, there are a few machines where this is harder that normal, but it's a very few machines. If this ever ends up on a PCB , it might be worth having normal edge fingers so the unit is a drop-in repalcement for the drive, but get it working first :-) You do not neec the expensive press tools. I have never used htem. What you need is a small bench vice. You can crimp the edge conenctors, IDC sockets, D connectors, Microribbon connecotrs, etc with no extra tooling if you are careful. The only ones you will have problems with the the 'transistion connectors' which are designed ot crimp onto a cable and then be soldered ot a PCB, basically a way to 'peramnaently' fix a cable to a PCB. There are 2 types. Oen ahs 2 straight rows of pins on a 0.1" matrix. That oen is easy. Put it in a solderless plugblock breadboard, then crimp the lot in the idce. The breadboard acts as a die to prevent the pins gettign squished. The other type, thankfully rare, has a stagered arangement of pins. If you insist on using those, you backally have to drill a metal block to act as a die. But you are not likely to use those in this project. I think Farnell seel ribobn cable in farily short lengths (1m or so). It's not cheap, but it's a lot less to lay out than if you had to buy the complete reel. Also rememebr you can cut ribbon cable down (nick it between wires, then strip it apart. It's wasteful to always have to do that, but if you have some 40 way cable, it;'s not too wasteful to make 34 way from it (and the remaining 6 way bit gets used for power, panel switch/indicator, etc wiring :-)) -tony