Where to get "straight" IDE/floppy cables?.. (not rounded ribbons!)

I

iddqd

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Sep 22, 2004
Messages
1,441
Hey, forum goons!

I'm getting tired of these relentlessly shitty ATA cables... they are "rounded" but all that's all they are: rounded ribbons. They all were ribbons at some point in time. What I need is a cable that was round from the start. Why, you might ask? Well, the connectors are at awekward angles. On a true round cable, I would imagine, the connectors would be straingt. Allow me to demonstrate... with the power of MS Paint, I bring you-

rounded cable:
diag1.jpg


round cable:
diag2.jpg


I want the latter. Where can I find them? I'm pretty sure it exists...
 
I have never seen a cable like you speak of you are wanting. All the connectors I have ever seen have the ribbon laid across it which causes the ribbon and the connector to make the 90 degrees. Like I said, I have never seen a ribbion go straight into a connector.

If you have any luck finding them, post it here. I would love to see them.

Good luck
 
Not only have I never seen commercially made cables of that description, but I've never seen a round cable with more than 20 conductors in it (other than of course the huge conduits used inside ancient analog phone switches).

Also, all the 40 pin connectors I've ever seen are insulation displacement types. I suppose you could do some really fine soldering, but that still doesn't solve the wire issue.
 
the whole way the ide connector goes onto the cable requires it to be at a 90° angle. When the connector is put on it pierces the wiring.
 
xonik said:
You can make the conversion yourself using a straight header. They come in 40-pin versions (0.100" pin spacing). Futurlec has them, for one,

http://www.futurlec.com/ConnHead.shtml
Click to expand...

Indeed, now that might work. You'd probably be best off using single strands then heatshrinking over the bundle. Probably neatest if the outer wires are longer than the inner ones; that way you can avoid huge triangular sheaths.
 
Othersider said:
Probably neatest if the outer wires are longer than the inner ones; that way you can avoid huge triangular sheaths.
Click to expand...
Sounds like a recipe for data corruption. Parallel data interfaces are sensitive to timing differences, and unequal wire lengths is a great way to mess up timing and lead to corrupt data and/or slow transfer rates and increased CPU utilization. All in all, rounded parallel cables are asking for trouble, because the cables were designed flat for a reason (to minimize crosstalk).
 
xonik said:
Sounds like a recipe for data corruption. Parallel data interfaces are sensitive to timing differences, and unequal wire lengths is a great way to mess up timing and lead to corrupt data and/or slow transfer rates and increased CPU utilization. All in all, rounded parallel cables are asking for trouble, because the cables were designed flat for a reason (to minimize crosstalk).
Click to expand...
i thought the ground wires in an 80 conductor IDF cable/40 connector block were supposed to help minimize crosstalk, to help offset that.

btw, how does ground wire spacing work in a rounded cable? probably not the same.
 
It doesn't. In ribbon cable form, the ground wires site between each data wire to reduce crosstalk between data lines, but when the wires are separated (ie. when the cable is rounded) it's entirely likely that data wires will sit next to each other and allow crosstalk to happen.
 
xonik said:
Sounds like a recipe for data corruption. Parallel data interfaces are sensitive to timing differences, and unequal wire lengths is a great way to mess up timing and lead to corrupt data and/or slow transfer rates and increased CPU utilization. All in all, rounded parallel cables are asking for trouble, because the cables were designed flat for a reason (to minimize crosstalk).
Click to expand...

You bet it is! But I'm guessing if he's being this picky about aesthetics, it's not exactly a mission-critical implementation! :p
 
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