I'm looking for at least one cable with the older 3-row centronics
connection to use with my Sun 3/60 and EXP-2 "shoebox" drives. I've
got the CPU, the keyboard, the mouse and now I've got the drives and
I'm ready to see this thing fire up. Has anyone got one of these old
cables lying around? I'm in the 60074 zip in the US.

And while we're at it, do they (or that connection, specifically) have
a proper name?

TIA

--

Jason T. <ooznet@chickencow.com> writes:
>I'm looking for at least one cable with the older 3-row centronics
>connection to use with my Sun 3/60 and EXP-2 "shoebox" drives. I've
>got the CPU, the keyboard, the mouse and now I've got the drives and
>I'm ready to see this thing fire up. Has anyone got one of these old
>cables lying around? I'm in the 60074 zip in the US.

>And while we're at it, do they (or that connection, specifically) have
>a proper name?

Yes, and that probably will help you. Its a DB50 SCSI cable.

Numerous online stores advertise they have them, either DB50 to DB50
or to some other SCSI flavor. Ie.

http://www.bestbuycable.com/search_r...0SCSI%20Cables

has a DB50 to DB50 in 3ft and 10ft listed for relatively cheap
(especially for SCSI cables.. I remember when these were very
expensive cables, and relatively hard to find).

Note, its NOT a centronics connector. The "SCSI-I" cables are
Centronics 50. Thats not what you are looking for, you want a DB50 for
your Sun3 stuff.

You can even get DB50 SCSI terminators relatively easily
now-a-days. Back-in-the day this was virtually impossible for me to source.

In article <42a05f46$0$27649$b02e4012@newsreader.geeks.org> ,
Doug McIntyre <merlyn@geeks.org> wrote:
>Jason T. <ooznet@chickencow.com> writes:
>>I'm looking for at least one cable with the older 3-row centronics
>>connection to use with my Sun 3/60 and EXP-2 "shoebox" drives. I've
>>got the CPU, the keyboard, the mouse and now I've got the drives and
>>I'm ready to see this thing fire up. Has anyone got one of these old
>>cables lying around? I'm in the 60074 zip in the US.
>
>>And while we're at it, do they (or that connection, specifically) have
>>a proper name?
>
>Yes, and that probably will help you. Its a DB50 SCSI cable.

Pedantically speaking, it is a cable with DD50 connectors. Not every
multi-pin D connector is size B, although the common DB25 is. There are
DA15, DB25, DC37, DD50, DE9.

I could probably find a couple of these cables in my back computer room.
Also a matching terminator or two.

carl
--
carl lowenstein marine physical lab u.c. san diego
clowenst@ucsd.edu

"Carl Lowenstein" <cdl@deeptow.ucsd.edu> wrote in message
news:d7q14r$nnt$1@news1.ucsd.edu...
> In article <42a05f46$0$27649$b02e4012@newsreader.geeks.org> ,
> Doug McIntyre <merlyn@geeks.org> wrote:
>>Jason T. <ooznet@chickencow.com> writes:
>>>I'm looking for at least one cable with the older 3-row centronics
>>>connection to use with my Sun 3/60 and EXP-2 "shoebox" drives. I've
>>>got the CPU, the keyboard, the mouse and now I've got the drives and
>>>I'm ready to see this thing fire up. Has anyone got one of these old
>>>cables lying around? I'm in the 60074 zip in the US.
>>
>>>And while we're at it, do they (or that connection, specifically) have
>>>a proper name?
>>
>>Yes, and that probably will help you. Its a DB50 SCSI cable.
>
> Pedantically speaking, it is a cable with DD50 connectors. Not every
> multi-pin D connector is size B, although the common DB25 is. There are
> DA15, DB25, DC37, DD50, DE9.
>

Even more pedantically (if that is a word) it is a DD50SA for Style A
numbering sequence as opposed to the Style B sequence used mostly on ribbon
connectors of that flavor...
Style A was sequential by row, ie: top row 1 through 18, etc.
Style B was in order by the ribbon cable conductors so you would have a
really jumbled looking pin numbering scheme but it made sense when on a
ribbon cable. It's been awhile but it went something like pin 1 top row, pin
2 bottom row, pin 3 middle row...
Ed

> I could probably find a couple of these cables in my back computer room.
> Also a matching terminator or two.
>
> carl
> --
> carl lowenstein marine physical lab u.c. san diego
> clowenst@ucsd.edu

In article <42a05f46$0$27649$b02e4012@newsreader.geeks.org> ,
Doug McIntyre <merlyn@geeks.org> wrote:
>Jason T. <ooznet@chickencow.com> writes:
>>I'm looking for at least one cable with the older 3-row centronics
>>connection to use with my Sun 3/60 and EXP-2 "shoebox" drives. I've
>>got the CPU, the keyboard, the mouse and now I've got the drives and
>>I'm ready to see this thing fire up. Has anyone got one of these old
>>cables lying around? I'm in the 60074 zip in the US.
>
>>And while we're at it, do they (or that connection, specifically) have
>>a proper name?
>
>Yes, and that probably will help you. Its a DB50 SCSI cable.

Others have already dealt with this part -- that it is a DD50.

[ ... ]

>Note, its NOT a centronics connector. The "SCSI-I" cables are
>Centronics 50.

Actually -- that is not true, either, though common usage has
made it appear so.

The true "Centronics" connector was a 34-pin version of the
Amphenol "Miniature Blue Ribbon" series of connectors. It got its name
from the fact that the Centroncs company (a maker of printers) used it
as their standard parallel printer interface. Any other size of the
Miniature Blue Ribbon connectors, or even that size when not used as a
parallel printer interface connector, is just that a "Miniature Blue
Ribbon" connector with 'N' pins.

> Thats not what you are looking for, you want a DB50 for
>your Sun3 stuff.

DD50.

>You can even get DB50 SCSI terminators relatively easily
>now-a-days. Back-in-the day this was virtually impossible for me to source.

Indeed -- only Sun could (or would) supply them.

Enjoy,
DoN.

--
Email: <dnichols@d-and-d.com> | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

Thanks to everyone who's posted or emailed me on this, especially for
that link to the bestbuycables site. I was surprised to find them so
cheap there. I'll email the people in this thread first, though.
Fortunately one of the EXP-2 drive boxes came with a DD50 terminator,
but I could always use more.

I forgot to mention - I am also looking for DC-600 tape media. I
figured they'd be plentiful (on ebay, etc) but I guess they're fairly
scarce. A fellow collector is willing to make OS tapes for me if I
can provide the blanks.

Thanks again

-j

On Fri, 03 Jun 2005 20:20:08 -0500, Jason T <ooznet@chickencow.com> wrote:

> I forgot to mention - I am also looking for DC-600 tape media. I
> figured they'd be plentiful (on ebay, etc) but I guess they're fairly
> scarce. A fellow collector is willing to make OS tapes for me if I
> can provide the blanks.

If you can't find the tape media I do remember that you can boot Sun3s
from CD-ROM using the 4.1.1_U1 media. I think I had to do something
that involved modifiying hex code in the PROM monitor though to get it
to boot, but can't remember now. I don't believe it was that difficult
though.

Brian