Cable from //e to ProFile drive? Also, "Trash and treasure"...

[Don Bruder <dakidd@sonic.net>]

Anybody know the wiring to use between a ProFile hard drive and a //e 
with an "Apple II Interface" (820-5008-[]B and 656-0203-D are the 
numbers it carries - according to a website I spotted yesterday, it's 
specifically made to be a controller/interface for the ProFile) ?

Just yeesterday, I ran across a literal dumpster full of what appear to 
be mainly old elemntary school computer-lab pulls. At least 3-4 dozen 
//e (and one enhanced //e - that one I'm definitely keeping for my own 
nefarious purposes!) systems. Unfortunately, no peripherals (drives, 
specifically) or software of any kind with them. Just the machines. The 
physical condition is *EXTREMELY* poor on most of them... 
smashed/crushed/cracked cases, keyboards smashed to bits, cables out the 
back simply lopped off with what looks like tin snips or similar rather 
than being unplugged, chunks of the rear panel cut out (again, 
apparently with tin snips because somebody was too lazy/in a hurry to 
unscrew the little bolts that held connectors in place) and similar 
"this machine was literally *THROWN* into the trash" type damage. None 
of them appear to be *ELECTRICALLY* damaged, though... motherboards 
intact and populated, power supply boxes in good shape, keyboards 
functional (although key-caps are missing/broken) and so on.

Out of the dozen or so I snatched (primary motivation for the grab: 
Sweet little regulated power supplies that are perfect for powering any 
number of electronic gizmos of the type I tend to wire together), I've 
managed to put two functional ones together with decent cases and 
keyboards - the rest of the ones I've grabbed are electrically and (at 
least, so far) electronically *FUNCTIONAL*, but cosmetically, they're 
*TOTAL* basket cases, and may have hidden problems that simply powering 
them up and running the kernel test hasn't shown. 

The *REAL* treasure-trove was the mound of cards that was in the 
dumpster with them...

Anybody want an extended 80 column card (old "big" style)? Or maybe a 
"plain" 80-column card? How about Disk II controller cards (with no 
cables attached, though...) Or perhaps a Z-80 card? An Epson "APL Card" 
(whatever THAT is...)? Perhaps an AE 64K card? Or maybe... You get the 
picture... I've got scads of cards sitting here, many of which I haven't 
even actually LOOKED AT yet, let alone gotten around to identifying. 
Basically, I just shoveled everything I could reach that was remotely 
card-shaped into the trunk of my car in true scrounger-style "grab 
everything that holds still long enough to wrap your mitts around, and 
worry about sorting the goodies from the garbage later" mode. Including 
the "Apple II Interface" card that I mentioned above. By chance, I've 
got a handful of 5 Meg ProFile drives available (technically my 
landlord's, but for the last 5 years, he's been not only giving me 
permission, but actively urging me to find a use for, strip salvagable 
stuff from, post to eBay, or simply cart to the dump, the entire pile of 
"dino-tronics" that's living in the garage and working hard at achieving 
sentience through sheer mass.) Since I've now got a toy that will (at 
least in theory) let me put one (or more... I can think of *SEVERAL* 
ways to put together another controller card that would effectively 
"hot-swap" drives under software control if I wanted to build a 
RAID-like system, ferinstance...) of these beasts to use, I want to try. 
Only one problem: No cable. 

What I know about the card:
As mentioned, the website I found yesterday tells me that it's 
specifically an interface to the ProFile drives. It didn't tell me much 
more than that. Electrically, it has a female DB-25 on the end of a 
chunk of ribbon cable, with one of the holes (Pin 7, to be specific) in 
the connector plugged with something plastic-like - the plug definitely 
looks intentional rather than accidental. The only other connection it 
has on it are the "fingers" to go in the card slot. 

Examining one of the ProFiles shows me a female DB-25 connector on the 
drive, with no "plug" in pin 7. After opening the drive box and chasing 
traces on the board, I've found that pin 7 of the DB-25 is attached to 
absolutely nothing, so it seems that the plugged hole on the card's 
DB-25 would be a deliberate "This isn't a serial port, stupid!" scheme. 
Which makes real good sense, since pin 7 on a serial cable would 
definitely be present and electrically active, whereas a "serial-shaped 
but not really serial" cable meant for that connector would have pin 7 
missing entirely.

So...

Anybody got any ideas on cabling these two items together? My first 
attempt, later on this afternoon, is going to be a simple 
"straight-thru" cable. If that doesn't work... <shrug> Suggestions are 
welcome...

And without deliberately trying to be an advertisement... Anybody want 
to buy an Apple //e motherboard/power supply/EF-ROM/complete (but 
smashed) computer? I've got several laying around here now...

-- 
Don Bruder -  dakidd@sonic.net <--- Preferred Email - unmunged, SpamAssassinated
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