From: Jonathan Berry (jberry_at_islandnet.com)
Date: Fri Jul 26 2002 - 14:42:45 EDT
Preliminary report
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I took the plunge. It has been quite an adventure already, and
I haven't loaded the CF carrier into my 701 HD caddy yet!
:-)) Easy to order with a VISA card.
:-( The web site tells you that export orders are billed in
$us, but they are billed in $aus (Australian dollars).
The discrepancy delayed me a couple of days.
:-) Shipping was only $aus10
Shipping cost them $aus3
:-) Delivery time was a week, as predicted.
:-) Replies to questions came quickly, with one exception
(noted below)
:-) The device is simple. The CF-carrier has an ejection
lever. The "smarts" are two capacitors and a master /
slave jumper.
The 44-pin connector is 2x22 which means that there are two
ways to insert it: the right way, or upside down which would
presumably fry your computer or drive. The way IBM decided to
avoid this problem in the 701 caddy was to key pin 20. Since
all notebook hard drives lack a pin 20, this solution works.
However, that is not the only possible solution. On the
Ultrabay HD adapter, IBM puts the (50-pin) connector right next
to a flat surface, so you cannot make a connection with the
"thick side" of the hard drive close to that surface.
:-( Evidently there is another way to avoid installing your
HD upside down. It is the use of a 2.5" IDE ribbon
cable. I have never run into such a thing, but it seems
to rely on a piece of plastic on the ribbon connector
mating with a slot on the CF carrier.
:-( So the CF carrier has a pin 20.
:-( It doesn't fit into the 701 caddy which has pin 20 keyed.
:-( A pin on the CF carrier needs to be snipped
But which pin? Again, there are two choices, the right
one and the wrong one.
:-( The request for which pin to snip occasioned the only
delay in communications with the manufacturer.
:-(( The answer that came back not only didn't reply to the
question, it linked to an incorrect diagram of the
interface.
:-( After a couple more exchanges, I'm still waiting for
confirmation of which pin to snip.
:-( Tech support claimed that they wrote me about this before
I ordered but what he in fact wrote was:
"Also I the CF-IDE-44 does have a notebook 44 pin connector but
the mounting holes etc are not designed to be compatible with a
notebook drive. So may need to drill some holes."
Of course, users of the 701C caddy are familiar with
the mounting holes not matching contemporary hard drives.
We're used to drilling new holes in the plastic, or
ignoring the problem, or using duct tape.
:-( "You have to rember this is not an end-user product. Its
intended for engineers."
:-) If I return the item, they offered to snip the right pin
:-) Or a refund
if I was not satisfied.
When they tell me which &#!@ pin to snip, I'll be happy to do it
myself, but I'm not sure I have the right tool. I'm thinking
maybe I should bend it a few times with fine pliers and maybe
it will break. They also offered that I could desolder the
pin, but I'm thinking that the heat could damage the connector.
I told the manufacturer:
"I'll let the Thinkpad list know about all of this. I'll
tell them to send Engineers as guinea pigs in future!"
More later.
>> Is there such a thing?
>
>> Another option might be a CF carrier which converts the pin-out
>> to compatibility with a laptop HD plug.
>
>Have a look at the very nice discussion here:
>
>http://www.dansdata.com/cfide.htm
>
>The 44-pin (notebook drive compatible) version of the CF-IDE adapter he discusses is currently US$17.27 before shipping at
>http://www.flashmemory.com.au/shop/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=3&cat=FlashMemory+Disk+Drives
>
>Should work a treat on a 701.
>
>- David R.
>
>
-- cheers Jonathan Berry http://www.islandnet.com/~jberry/ to know more than you want
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