RE: Hard drive cases/connectors

["John H. Kim" <jokim@mit.edu>]

In message Wed, 26 Oct 1994 15:38:33 +0200,
  uwe@odb.rhein-main.de (Tim Vetter)  writes:

>>Say, since you've overflowing with all this info on the TP drives, do you
>>   know where we can buy a case for it, or where we can buy the funky
>>  little connector inside the case?  (Actually, I've tracked down the
>> plug at the drive end, it's just the cable and the TP plug I need)
>
> Does this mean if we got hold of the TP-end plug we could connect up a
> drive *without* the case?  Presumably the cable itself is trivial, just
> normal ribbon stuff -- all that's needed is the plugs at either end.  I

Well, the case is trivial - just epoxy some pieces of plastic together.
The cable is the problem - it isn't the normal ribbon type cable.  It looks
like metal etched onto a flexible plastic backing.  The widths of the plugs
on either end are different so the cable compresses the wires into a smaller
width at one end.

> Furthermore, is it conceivable then that this would allow attachment of
> arbitrary IDE drives, ie by running the ribbon cable outside the TP's
> housing, or are the electrical characteristics of TP drives unique somehow
> (aside from the normal considerations of power-draw).

You could, but if you blow the fuse on the TP in this manner, your warranty
is gone.  IBM wasn't able to/wouldn't tell me the maximum power the hard
drive should draw so all we have is the IBM drives themselves to go on.
Someone else had that information.
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John H. Kim        | "Mike Espy simply forgot he was no longer a Congressman."
jokim@mit.edu      | -anonymous, on the Secretary of Agriculture's resignation
jokim@uni.uiuc.edu | due to conflict of interest charges for accepting gifts.
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