Van: Henk Gooijen via cctalk<mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org> Verzonden: zaterdag 9 september 2017 06:55 Aan: General Discussion: On-Topic Posts<mailto:cct...@classiccmp.org> Onderwerp: Seeking VT180 floppy drive connection cable BC26K
Hi list readers, I have a VT180 and two dual 5.25” floppy drive units. I am not planning on connecting both drive boxes, just one. From documentation, I understand that you need one BC26K cable to connect the VT180 to the (first) floppy drive unit. The cable is shielded and has at both ends a 37-pin sub-D connector. First question. Is the pin-out 1:1, that is pin #1 -> pin #1, pin #2 -> pin #2, etc.? Second question. If the pin-out is 1:1, then if I place the floppy drive unit on top of the VT180, could I get away with a simple short 37-wire flat cable? All even pins are IIRC “ground”, so crosstalk would be minimal. Third question. Does anybody have a BC26K for sale? The original cable is of course the nicest option 😊 Thanks, Henk Update!! I looked at my VT180 and the floppy drive box, and have to make corrections to my earlier post. The connector on the VT180 is a 37-pin sub-D, but the connector on the floppy drive unit is a DB-25! So a 1:1 flatcable surely is not correct. In EK-VT18X-TM-001 on page 3-37 is a table with the pins and signals of the 37-pin sub-D. An other correction: the *odd* pins are connected to ground. Finally, after google searching, I found Will Kranz’s http://www.willsworks.net/pdp-11/vt1xx#VT180 page. It lists the interconnection as follows. <copy> I only show existing pins below, many slots were blank on both ie db37: 1-5, 7,11,13,15,17, | db25 14,17-19 29,32,33,35-37 | db37 db25 6 1 8 2 9 15 10 3 12 4 14 5 16 6 18 7 19 20 20 8 21 21 22 9 23 22 24 10 25 23 26 11 27 24 28 12 30 25 31 13 34 16 </copy> If somebody has the BC26K cable, could you check/verify these connections? Then I can make my own connection cable and start CP/M on the VT180 … Thanks, Henk
