15 Dec
2013
15 Dec
'13
7:48 p.m.
I'm looking for a BC80J-20 cable... that's the one that goes from the
RL controller card to the first drive, with a 40 pin header on one end
and that big quick-release connector on the other end.
(I am tired of failures and damage to the rigged ribbon cable/IDC
header I've been using, and now that I'm chasing a fault in my two-
RL02 system, I can't swap drives without taking the cover off to get
to the header connectors inside).
thanks
Charles
3 Jan
3 Jan
7:22 a.m.
On 12/15/13, 10:48 PM, Charles wrote:
I'm looking for a BC80J-20 cable... that's the
one that goes from the
RL controller card to the first drive, with a 40 pin header on one end
and that big quick-release connector on the other end.
(I am tired of failures and damage to the rigged ribbon cable/IDC
header I've been using, and now that I'm chasing a fault in my
two-RL02 system, I can't swap drives without taking the cover off to
get to the header connectors inside).
I think I'm looking for one of these as well. Or maybe someone here can
point me to what I really want :-)
I have an RL02 driver and an RL02 controller, but I seem to have
lost/misplaced the "cabinet kit". I could swear I had one at one point.
So, the RL02 drive has a terminator and a nice long round cable which
seems to have a 2x.1" header. But I believe I need the cable part which
is normally install on the cpu cabinet. My guess is it would cable a
shielded ribbon cable with a connector for the board header and the
other end would have a metal bracket and something to mate with the nice
round cable...
Is this even close?
-brad
8:40 a.m.
On Jan 3, 2014, at 10:10 AM, "Brad Parker"
<brad at heeltoe.com> wrote:
> On 12/15/13, 10:48 PM, Charles wrote:
> I'm looking for a BC80J-20 cable... that's the one that goes from the RL
controller card to the first drive, with a 40 pin header on one end and that big
quick-release connector on the other end.
Neal Heffron at ELI systems usually has these in stock. I don't know what he charges,
I got mine with a reconditioned RL02. neal at eli.com gets to his mailbox.
(I am tired of failures and damage to the rigged ribbon cable/IDC header I've been
using, and now that I'm chasing a fault in my two-RL02 system, I can't swap drives
without taking the cover off to get to the header connectors inside).
I think
I'm looking for one of these as well. Or maybe someone here can point me to what I
really want :-)
I have an RL02 driver and an RL02 controller, but I seem to have lost/misplaced the
"cabinet kit". I could swear I had one at one point.
So, the RL02 drive has a terminator and a nice long round cable which seems to have a
2x.1" header. But I believe I need the cable part which is normally install on the
cpu cabinet. My guess is it would cable a shielded ribbon cable with a connector for the
board header and the other end would have a metal bracket and something to mate with the
nice round cable...
Is this even close?
-brad
8:51 a.m.
From: "Brad Parker" <brad at heeltoe.com>
Sent: Friday, January 03, 2014 4:22 PM
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Subject: Re: Need DEC BC80J-20 cable
On 12/15/13, 10:48 PM, Charles wrote:
Almost.
The metal bracket is a simple rectangular piece with 2 "slots" in it.
In a slot fits a "chassis" connector part, just like one of them on the
rear side of the RL02 drive. At one side you hook the drive cable,
at the other side is a 40-pin IDC header. The ribbon cable is indeed
a shielded one, it has a 40-pin IDC header at both sides.
If you have a defective (beyond repair ...) RL02 drive, you can use
one of the 2 cable connectors from the rear side. A small 40-wire
not-shielded ribbon cable (*) will probably work fine. There is no
"twist" in that cable, so a simple 1:1 female IDC header to female
IDC header is OK.
(*) Once, I had a some 2 meter long unshielded ribbon cable to
connect from the RK611 controller to the same "chassis" connector,
and then to an RK07 disk drive. I got lots of errors, traced with a
scope and logic analyzer ... After many hours I found out that
all problems went away when I used a shielded cable!
- Henk
I'm looking for a BC80J-20 cable...
that's the one that goes from the RL
controller card to the first drive, with a 40 pin header on one end and
that big quick-release connector on the other end.
(I am tired of failures and damage to the rigged ribbon cable/IDC header
I've been using, and now that I'm chasing a fault in my two-RL02 system,
I can't swap drives without taking the cover off to get to the header
connectors inside).
I think I'm looking for one of these as well. Or maybe someone here can
point me to what I really want :-)
I have an RL02 driver and an RL02 controller, but I seem to have
lost/misplaced the "cabinet kit". I could swear I had one at one point.
So, the RL02 drive has a terminator and a nice long round cable which
seems to have a 2x.1" header. But I believe I need the cable part which
is normally install on the cpu cabinet. My guess is it would cable a
shielded ribbon cable with a connector for the board header and the other
end would have a metal bracket and something to mate with the nice round
cable...
Is this even close?
-brad 
9:18 a.m.
On Fri, Jan 3, 2014 at 10:22 AM, Brad Parker <brad at heeltoe.com> wrote:
I think I'm looking for one of these as well. Or
maybe someone here can
point me to what I really want :-)
I have an RL02 driver and an RL02 controller, but I seem to have
lost/misplaced the "cabinet kit". I could swear I had one at one point.
So, the RL02 drive has a terminator and a nice long round cable which seems
to have a 2x.1" header. But I believe I need the cable part which is
normally install on the cpu cabinet. My guess is it would cable a shielded
ribbon cable with a connector for the board header and the other end would
have a metal bracket and something to mate with the nice round cable...
Is this even close?
According to the RL01/RL02 User Guidemanual, EK-RL012-UG-005...
RL11 and RLV11 takes a BC06R (flat) cable
RLV21 takes a BC80M (round) cable
RL8A takes a BC80J (round) cable
The flat cable is just a 40-pin shielded cable as used by many DEC
peripherals. 10' is common, as is 20'. The round cables plug right
into the controller and have an RL end that goes right to the drive.
The flat cable goes to a transition bracket assembly (70-12415-0-0?).
The connector there is identical to the ones on the back of the
drives. From the transition bracket, you use the same cables that go
from drive to drive (BC20J-XX / 70-12122-XX)
I have never checked the pinouts of the BC80M and BC80J to see what's
run and what is not, but I've always been curious.
Cheers,
-ethan
10:24 a.m.
On 1/3/14 9:18 AM, Ethan Dicks wrote:
I have never checked the pinouts of the BC80M and
BC80J to see what's
run and what is not, but I've always been curious.
I'll put separated out cable drawings on the RL01_RL02 page on bitsavers.
It looks like the RC80M has a large ground braid coming off the cable at
the controller end.
I thought I had the schematic for the RL02 terminator somewhere, now that's
going to drive me crazy until I find it again. It was mostly to find out what
the term resistor values were.
4 Jan
4 Jan
12:24 p.m.
On 01/03/2014 04:22 PM, Brad Parker wrote:
On 12/15/13, 10:48 PM, Charles wrote:
Perhaps you already have the answer, I haven't read the whole thread.
But on my previous 11/23 it looks like this:
first at the RLV11: http://www.update.uu.se/~pontus/swec/rlv-flatkabel.jpg
Then the cab kit: http://www.update.uu.se/~pontus/swec/extern-flatkabel.jpg
And the external cable:
http://www.update.uu.se/~pontus/swec/extern-kontakt.jpg
/P
I'm looking for a BC80J-20 cable...
that's the one that goes from the
RL controller card to the first drive, with a 40 pin header on one
end and that big quick-release connector on the other end.
(I am tired of failures and damage to the rigged ribbon cable/IDC
header I've been using, and now that I'm chasing a fault in my
two-RL02 system, I can't swap drives without taking the cover off to
get to the header connectors inside).
I think I'm looking for one of these as well. Or maybe someone here
can point me to what I really want :-)
I have an RL02 driver and an RL02 controller, but I seem to have
lost/misplaced the "cabinet kit". I could swear I had one at one point.
So, the RL02 drive has a terminator and a nice long round cable which
seems to have a 2x.1" header. But I believe I need the cable part
which is normally install on the cpu cabinet. My guess is it would
cable a shielded ribbon cable with a connector for the board header
and the other end would have a metal bracket and something to mate
with the nice round cable...
Is this even close? 
6 Jan
6 Jan
8:15 a.m.
On Sat, Jan 4, 2014 at 3:24 PM, Pontus <pontus at update.uu.se> wrote:
... on my previous 11/23 it looks like this:
first at the RLV11: http://www.update.uu.se/~pontus/swec/rlv-flatkabel.jpg
Then the cab kit: http://www.update.uu.se/~pontus/swec/extern-flatkabel.jpg
And the external cable:
http://www.update.uu.se/~pontus/swec/extern-kontakt.jpg
I am unfamiliar with that cab kit. I don't recognize the small square holes.
The cab kit I have seen is with Unibus machines and is a small black
bracket, slightly smaller than your outstretched hand, that easily
mounts to a 19" rack rail, and accommodates two of those black plastic
ZIF transition bracket and has a threaded hole under each for the
round-cable strain relief. It would not be difficult to fabricate an
equivalent out of flat metal. There are probably mechanical drawings
of it in the RL11 printset... (checked... in MP00153_RL11EngrDrws.pdf
on Bitsavers, there's a picture of the overall arrangement, but no
detail on the bracket).
FWIW, the bracket appears to be P/N 70-12415, but that would probably
only help if you were looking through a bunch of sealed, marked padded
bags.
-ethan
4008
days inactive
4029
days old
7 comments
7 participants
participants (7)
-
aek＠bitsavers.org -
brad＠heeltoe.com -
charlesmorris800＠centurytel.net -
ethan.dicks＠gmail.com -
henk.gooijen＠hotmail.com -
pontus＠update.uu.se -
roe＠liveblockauctions.com