Can I Get Away With This?(IDE Male to Male)?

[ViRGE]

I recently purchased an Antec P160 aluminum case, and ran in to a problem when trying to mount one of my hard drives. The P160 aligns the HDs in such a way that they run parallel to the front bezel(as opposed to perpendicular like most cases), which means there's very little extra space; a problem in this case since one my my HDs uses a PATA->SATA adapter to plug in to my A7N8X's SATA controller. Since the adpater won't fit, I was thinking I could try this instead: run a normal PATA cable a short distance to get out of the drive cage, then use an IDE male-to-male adapter to let me plug the PATA->SATA adapter in to that cable, and finish the SATA run as normal.

Now, I want to know if this is possible at all? I did a quick check on Newegg for a male-to-male adapter, and they didn't seem to have one, so I suppose the first question is: do they exist? And if so, would I still be within spec for the PATA->SATA adapter(i.e. will the adpater still work with a cable in between)?

 

[beatle]

I don't think it would work, even if they existed. Since ATA66 and up, the cables have had the standard 40 pin plug, but 80 wires (individual grounds). Since you basically break that chain when you use a male to male adapter, it may not work.

 

[ViRGE]

Perhaps, but it's my understanding that the 80 wires are simply added shielding against interfearance; they don't connect to anything anyhow. Besides, it's only going in to a SATA adapter, not another PATA cable, so I wouldn't think interfearance would be much of a problem. Anyone else?

 

[nitromullet]

I think that reason these adaptors don't exist is due to the fact that there is technically a maximum length that a P-ATA can be and still provide a decent signal that is shorter than the length of two standard cables.

--Nitromullet

 

[LouPoir]

I have the same problem on my Sonata case. One possible solution is the mount the drive backwards in the tray, withthe cable faing inside. I have not tried it but there may be enough room on the inside.

Lou

 

[ViRGE]

If the Sonata's drive bay is like the P160's, there's no way to fit the HD+adapter in the HD bay at all. I had to settle with putting it in the external 3.5"(floppy" bay for now.

 

[foofoo]

hi,
male to male adaptors do exist (they are called headers) but you dont want to use them. if you think about the topology for a minute you can see that hooking 2 female connectors together through straight male pins puts the top pins on the bottom and the bottom pins on the top. whenever we are using extenders on flat cable fior instrumentation, we either crimp on the apropriate mail connector or use 2 cable segments with headers for the extension.
in any case, it might work.
good luck

edit-----
sorry, misread the original problem. how about mounting the hd so that the rear of it sticks out of the 3.5" internal bays enough to let you put the sata => ide adapter on?
another possibility is to buy the male connector that you need and crimp it onto an existing ide cable. they should be available at digikey or some place like that

 

[JustAnAverageGuy]

buy a longer cable?

 

[ViRGE]

Cable length isn't the problem, the problem is that the PATA->SATA adapter won't fit in the drive cage space.

PS foofoo, will crimping work in this case? I have a spare PATA cable, so I'm not against crimping on a male connector if it'll work, and not too hard to do

 

[foofoo]

PS foofoo, will crimping work in this case? I have a spare PATA cable, so I'm not against crimping on a male connector if it'll work, and not too hard to do

hi,
we make cables all of the time. usually the cable manufacturer reccomends that you use the special 3m crimping tool but we usually just use a vise if we only have 1 or a few to make. squeeze hard enough to get the connector snug and well set on the cable but not too hard so that you destroy the connector. also, make sure that pin 1 of the existing cable is on the correct side of the connector when you crimp it. usually this is indicated on the connector with a little triangle molded into the plastic.
the only trouble that i see is that the places that i usually buy like digi-key have a $25 minimum order. if you need something else, it may be worth adding it to the order. if not, it's kind of expensive to do it that way.

if you want to try using two headers and a short piece of cable, pm me and i'll send you two 40pin headers. you can then just use a razor blade to cut off the longer segment and save the joined short segments (~6" long) on a 2 device ide cable and use the 2 headers to get the pin order right. you'll need 2 spare ide cables to cut up but if you are like me, you've probably got lots of them laying around.
good luck.