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[Heiroglyph]

I've got a lot of 68 pin SCSI drives, but all my controllers are 50pin.

I currently have one 50 pin cable, terminated on the end and the SCSI card terminated on the other. In the middle I have a 50 to 68 pin adapter plugged into an unterminated 68 pin drive. (the plastic kind that attach directly to the drive, no extra cables or circuit board)

This seems good, but requires an adapter for every single drive and my local supplier is out of them.

Can I get away with one adapter at the controller (50 to 68), then a 68 pin cable with terminator?

Then every drive would connect directly to the cable and use just one adapter at the controller.

I tried this briefly but the drive wasn't recognized. It could have been user error but it was getting late so I haven't tried again yet.

Thanks

[gizmo350]

Yup, you can do that. Just be sure to terminate the last drive in the chain and give each drive it's own ID with the jumpers on the drives circuit board.

[Heiroglyph]

After thinking about it, are you sure I won't need to unterminate the controller, then put a 68pin active terminator on both ends of the cable with drives and controller in the middle?

I have no idea if this adapter terminates the extra pins, but I severely doubt it.

Thanks

[gizmo350]

Originally Posted by Heiroglyph

After thinking about it, are you sure I won't need to unterminate the controller, then put a 68pin active terminator on both ends of the cable with drives and controller in the middle?

I have no idea if this adapter terminates the extra pins, but I severely doubt it.

Thanks

The adapter(s) (connector adapters) shouldn't even come into play. If I understand you right, your going from a single SCSI drive to multiple drives using a single controller? When using a single drive it doesn't matter where the terminator is (controller or drive). But with multiple drives the controller has to be at the header end and the terminator at the last drive. Set each SCSI id on each of the drives themselves. Check here at Dave's SCSI school...

http://www.tracezero.net/SCSI/basics.php

[Heiroglyph]

Actually, there is no reason that the controller has to be in the middle, it's just another node.

I may have to work up a pic to explain the two options I came up with.

Those extra 18 connections in the wide cable worry me if they aren't being terminated. The controller wouldn't be attached to them, the drives would be.

[Zac67]

SCSI requires exactly two terminators at the ends. The unused connectors mustn't be terminated in any way.

[rockape]

Hi Heiroglyph,

See http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/SCSI/SCSIExamples.html

There are some diagrams which may help you.

Regards, Michael

aka rockape