[rescue] OT: Cable Question

[Jonathan C. Patschke]

On Thu, 2 Aug 2007, Dan Williams wrote:

> We have a machine which duplicates ide  12 drives. The idc connectors
> are being plugged/unplugged about 10 times a day. Does anyone know of
> anywhere that sells something more rugged or reliable then the
> standard type. They are breaking very often due to people pulling them
> too hard.

If this is a really big problem, the only thing I could think of would
be to use a different sort of drive bay/connector.

If you're using different disks all the time, you could design a drive
bay where the drive drops in vertically.  Rather than having female IDC
and molex connectors on the bottom, you'd have a set of pogo-pins for
power and another set for data.  Then, across the top, you'd have a
locking-bar to hold the drive in place (since the physical connection
would be reliable, but not resilient to motion.

If you're using a relatively small set of disks over and over, something
like this might be more to your liking:
   http://www.vantecusa.com/product-storage.html

-- 
Jonathan Patschke ) "When they turn the pages of history, when these
Elgin, TX        (   days have passed long ago, will they read of us
USA               )  with sadness for the seeds that we let grow?
-                (               --Neil Peart, "A Farewell to Kings"