Digidesign Expansion Chassis

[Philee]

Folks
So I got the 13 slot chassis with the yellow Digi logo and the switch in the center but I realized that it didn't come with the card at all. There is no host or whatever the card you call it.

What are the specific cards I need to get? Some say I need two for the chassis and one for the Mac.

Also, what kind of cable do I need to get? Is this something you can create your own with a few years of soldering experience?


Your help is greatly appreciated.

[John_Toolbox]

The chassis is either made by magma or SBS. You will need to figure out who made it and call them. From what I've heard they no longer have the cards or cables available, but they will hopefully be able to tell you what you are looking for.

You definitely need the host interface PCI card(goes in the computer), and the cable. Some chassis have what is called a backplane controller card, which has a dedicated slot in the chassis. This is what the cable will plug into, or some chassis just have the connector mounted on the case somewhere. Easy way to tell, if the chassis has 14 slots, one of them is for the backplane controller, the other 13 are for your pci cards.

It's very common for chassis to get separated from their PCI host cards and cables. Generally the computer gets recycled with the host card in it, and then someone tries to sell the chassis by itself to an unsuspecting buyer.

I would try and get in touch with the seller ASAP and see if they know where the card and cable might be. Thats really your best bet.

[Philee]

I did some major disassembling and urned out I got the Magma 14-slot chassis.
It did come with the Magma card (01-04626-XX) in the chassis but not the host card for the Mac. It also came with ATTO ExpressPCI-DC card with two channel connections on the end. The wide thin connectors looked the same as the one on the Magma card. Do you know what this card is for?

I did google and the host card needs to be 01-03527-00. Is this host card hard to find? How much should I expect it to cost? What kind of cable do I need to connect them together?


Also, I realized that there are other types of Host/ interface cards that use bigger connectors and a large flat ribbon cable. How do they compare to the one I have on my system?


Thanks.

[John_Toolbox]

That's the same chassis I used to have.

I've never found the host card by itself, so if you can find it you'll pay whatever the seller wants. Like I said the host cards usually end up getting recycled with the computer, there are tons of chassis floating around on ebay without host cards.

The ATTO card you got in the chassis is a SCSI card.

[Philee]

Thanks John.
Then is the host card the only thing I need to make the whole chassis to work with the Mac? What about the card you called it the backplane controller card?
Is the ATTO SCSI controller card what you meant by a backplane controller card? I don't know why it is there in a first place.

[milesofwire]

That's where the cable connects coming from the computer host card.

[John_Toolbox]

Yes, the magma card that's in the 14th slot is the backplane controller card.

[Philee]

Master John, do you happen to know what version of VHDCI68 SCSI Cable do Magma cards use?
The ones I have is the VHDCI68 version. But I didn't realize until one of the eBay seller defined his cable as the VHDCI68 *Off-Set.* he claims there is n*on-offset* version as well.

Thanks.

[John_Toolbox]

No clue. Do you have a picture of said cable?

Not sure what could be offset about it. It would have to be trapezoidally shaped so that it only plugs in one way. Most are 68 pin, there are also 50 pin versions on older stuff(disk i/o pci card uses a 50 pin vhdci).

I also don't know if the pinout for a magma is the same as a VHDCI SCSI cable.

[Philee]

This is the auction.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...:X:RTQ:US:1123

This is what the seller has to say.
"Hi there,
Check out these pictures..
http://www.cablewholesale.com/prodimages/10n3-041.jpg
that picture shows a NOT offset version.the connector is VERTICALLY in the center.
http://www.cablewholesale.com/prodimages/10n3-141.jpg
now that one is OFFSET... the LONG side of the connector is flat up against the edge. see the difference? offset connectors can always be used in place of non-offset...we only carry offset now.non-offset cannot always be used. Let me know if you have questions. Thanks"

I just couldn't find the difference.