Re: Hard drive cases/connectors

[uwe@odb.rhein-main.de (Tim Vetter)]

>>>   How about the Thinkpad User's Group Company (THUGCO).
>
>Interesting idea.  Change the name.  THUGCO sounds like a pack of hoodlums,
>cutthroats, and muggers.

It was meant in jest, perhaps some smiley detectors need tuning :-))))

>Actually, all I'd envisoned was putting together a deal to get a bunch of
>these cables made, signing up enough people from this group to finance the
>order, and disbanding after it was all over.  But I suppose most of the
>organizational work would coincide with setting up a more permanent
>business arrangement. 

Especially when you consider that on the technical side the accessory game
ALL follows the pattern of trivial or off-the-shelf electronics + custom
housing + one or more obscure connectors.  Witness:

hard drive ass'y = small IDE drive + injection-moulded case
                        + some obscure connectors 

memory card = surface-mounted DRAM + alu (?) sheet case
                        + an obscure connector

expansion dock = ISA bus and slots + power supply + inj-mould case
                        + an obscure connector

The point is that if someone's gone to the trouble of establishing relations
with a connector supplier and a plastics/sheet-metal facility, it's not that
much incrementally to extend the product line.  

Note also that since small-job plastics/sheet fabricators are dime-a-dozen,
and the electronic stuff is all grade-school level reverse engineering,
sourcing the connectors is really the key to a venture like this.  I wonder
whether IBM and Toshiba haven't built a shark-filled moat around their
connector suppliers to forestall just such an attack ?!?

Best,

Tim Vetter
uwe@odb.rhein-main.de
vetter@hookup.net