SGI: Hardware

Does anyone know the pinout of the black + white cables used to connect a VBOB to a XT-DIGVID? Is it straight through MDR26 <> MDR26 (or half pitch Centronics, whatever it is called)?

Anyone? If no one knows, could somebody please measure his?

canavan wrote: Anyone? If no one knows, could somebody please measure his?

DM2s, DM3s and DM5s have become very affordable, but the LVDS cables used to connect the DM2/3 to the DM5 are still pretty rare (and likely to get even more so when Richtom1s limited supply is exhausted).

If someone with a set of the LVDS cables would take a few minutes to meter the pinout it would be a nice gesture to the nekochan community.

recondas, how right you are. I currently have the cables priced higher than the DM2. 8\

Ian.

mapesdhs wrote: how right you are. I currently have the cables priced higher than the DM2.

Since the price probably limits your (potential) LVDS cable customers to those with corporate budgets - the very kind who wouldn't be caught dead mucking around with a soldering iron and therefore would still buy from you even if the cable pin-out was publicly available - does that mean you're graciously volunteering to help out your fellow nekochan members by taking five minutes to meter the LVDS cable pin-out.

Or were you just mocking our plight?

recondas wrote: Or were you just mocking our plight?

I'll do it when I can, but it's a lot more than 5 mins & I have a mountain of other stuff to sort first atm.

Ian.

mapesdhs wrote: I'll do it when I can...

Thanks Ian - your offer of help is greatly appreciated.

guys would a snap of the cable suffice? or do you have to crack it open and meticulously examine its guts?

i'll be doing some post work next week, i can ask around if there's any left/hidden in the storage room

fu wrote: guys would a snap of the cable suffice? or do you have to crack it open and meticulously examine its guts?

What's needed is a listing of how the wires in side the are routed from one end to the other. While a photo would help identify the cables in question, the needed detail would be hidden from a normal photograph. On the other hand, no disassembly should be required, the internal wiring can be determined from either end with the use of a multi-meter or even a simple continuity tester.

fu wrote: i'll be doing some post work next week, i can ask around if there's any left/hidden in the storage room

If there are any laying around unused, send 'em to me and I'll test them and post the pin-outs.

( where do i send it to? was the hidden question :))

a want list of such things would be useful, esp. if they're small enough to be shipped to the research team for analysis/documentation/wikification

If you're in Berlin, you could post one cable to me (I'm in Cologne), and I'll be glad to measure it, post the results and send it back to you. PM me for my postal address.

will let you know canavan, recondas offered help already. last post house i've been to was empty of anything sgi though

have anyone eventually measured the pin-out of the LVDS cable?

best

f.

fockion wrote: have anyone eventually measured the pin-out of the LVDS cable?

If they did they haven't posted anything about it here.

I guess the key question is, can one use a 'standard' LVDS cable in place of the original SGI-branded
cables for DM2/VBOB/etc.?

Ian.

mapesdhs wrote: I guess the key question is, can one use a 'standard' LVDS cable in place of the original SGI-branded
cables for DM2/VBOB/etc.?

Right. Hence the request for a pin out of an original SGI cable.........

canavan wrote: Is it straight through MDR26 <> MDR26 (or half pitch Centronics, whatever it is called)?

Don't know if it's straight through - you can see the pinout of a couple of the MDR26 LDVS cables 3M uses in this PDF , and the Camera Link MDR26 cable in this PDF - neither are pin-to-pin straight through.

Possibly a different application and/or pinout, but if anyone wants a couple of 'donor' MDR26 connectors there's currently "more than 10" male-to-male MDR26-to-MDR26 cables with the correct latch-type retention hardware on eBay for seven bucks a pop. http://www.ebay.com/itm/8-MDR26-Male-to ... 563e43cb12 Not a bad price for donor parts, considering "new" connectors and shells would run you $6.81 and $9.18 respectively at Mouser (and you'd need two connectors/shells for each cable).

Mouser will also sell a complete one-meter version of a 3M MDR26 cable for 58 bucks (slightly less if more than five are purchased): http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/3M/ ... cHiw%3d%3d - but you'd still need to make sure the pinout is DM2/3 compatible.

recondas, in the two PDFs you linked, the 3M one and the CameraLink one, the "pinouts" or connectivity between the plugs is the same. Both are simple rollover configurations (which is actually a simpler configuration than "straight thru" for connectors with multiple rows). But the internal construction of the cables is different, as one has 11 unshielded twisted pairs and the other has 6 twinax shielded cables plus 8 single wires. This difference can't be distinguished by simply probing with a continuity tester. So suppose that the cable SGI uses tests as the same pinout as either of these. That wouldn't be sufficient information to know that it would work as a replacement: the characteristic impedance of the signals may be different.

Knowing the pinout will at least let you know that nothing is going to catch fire due to the substitute cable. Considering that most of the candidates are rather short, we may be lucky and get away with a less than optimal replacement.

Hello everyone!

Did the pinout ever become discovered? Has anyone tried the non-sgi cables mentioned?

Thanks!

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=16727186&start=15

The claim about the possible alternative cable in the Wiki is suspicious. Someone needs to verify my measurements.

http://www.nekochan.net/wiki/DMediaPro