FYI to the list, I got one of these: IDE laptop to regular IDE adapter. p/n FLT-3120 @ $19.95 each. at http://www.cablemakers.com 1-888-921-2243 a while back. No complaints to report. The website photo shows a slight change to the one I have. Hate to have to hand wire/solder one of these. John A.

On Fri, Feb 18, 2000 at 06:00:51PM -0700, Clint Wolff (VAX collector) wrote: Or a "duckbill" vice grip, available at welding supply shops and some auto parts shops. Works nicely, and not too strong... A vice is OK but you have to be really careful to listen for the clicks, the first one is the connector seating, the second one is the connector shattering! John Wilson D Bit

Jerome Fine replies: Either you vice is very strong or you are - I have never been able to apply that much pressure. I often use a high powered magnifying glass just to be sure that all the pins are aligned with the cable before I tighten the vice. A bright light helps as well. Also, my vice is a bare bones model which has just plain metal jaws. But I rarely do more than 34 pin cables for disk drives. Sometimes I do a 50 pin cable in which case I often need to do as much as possible in the centre - then shift the connector first to one side then the other to achieve a tight enough fit and apply enough pressure and finally finish up back in the centre. I usually don't use that excuse - I just say that I am plain frugal or cheap - which ever seems right at the time.-) Or I say that all expenses must be offset by something else that I sell to justify the new purchase. The hard part is taking old connectors off old cables - the 34/20 pin edge connectors are usually easy. Getting the header off the other end is almost always difficult - inexpensive and time consuming, but difficult. Sincerely yours, Jerome Fine

I have used a vice to crimp connectors but for card-edge connectors I just stand of the connector with just the heel of my boot and rock slightly. It is hard to do that way with the header-type connectors without breaking the locks off. You can use superglue if you do.... Caution with a vise. I bent the handle on a friend's one time trying to crimp a scsi header onto some rainbow-colored cable I have. This cable has a little bit more insulation than is normal and it was hard to get throug. -- ----------------------------------------------------------- Jeffrey S. Worley Technical Services Bits & Bytes Computer Services Inc. 1979B Hendersonville Road Asheville, NC 28803 828-684-8953 - voice 0900-1700 five days 828-687-9284 - 24hr fax Who is General Failure and why is he reading my hard disk? Technoid(a)Cheta.net -----------------------------------------------------------

At 12:47 PM 2/19/00 -0600, you wrote: I do the same thing but I just use the regular jaws. I just take it slow and easy. Even a slight over tightening will crush the connector. Joe

Well, I have gotten my DG MV4000DC up and running. It has 8mb ram, a 120mb and an 71mb hard disks, 5b terminals, 12 telnet soft terminals, tcp/ip (not fully configured yet). I have OS tapes, tcpip tape, diagnostic tapes and utilities. I could use a copy of PCOPY.PR to restore an LDU from the former config. I have gotten reasonable facile with the machine and operating system. If anyone comes across an DG machine I can provide system software and tech aid in getting it up and running. This applies to the Data General MV/xxxxx series machines. -- ----------------------------------------------------------- Jeffrey S. Worley Technical Services Bits & Bytes Computer Services Inc. 1979B Hendersonville Road Asheville, NC 28803 828-684-8953 - voice 0900-1700 five days 828-687-9284 - 24hr fax Who is General Failure and why is he reading my hard disk? Technoid(a)Cheta.net -----------------------------------------------------------