The chassis expansion anthology for PowerMacs

[Knezzen]

It can be that someone switched front panels on the 7-slot sometime in it's life, or that they actually made Digidesign branded 7-slot Magma chassis for the EU market (I have no idea).

[Trace-Elliot]

was (or is ) a pcmcia hostcard for powerbooks aviable ??

[Mat]

Are you asking for something like that?

http://www.macobserver.com/tips/dm2/2001/20010517.shtml
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan01/articles/magma.asp

Edit: and it seems to be still available for 1 to 13 PCI slots:
http://magma.com/products/kits-and-parts/cards-and-backplanes/cardbus-host-card-for-laptop-cbhif/

[MacOS Plus]

was (or is ) a pcmcia hostcard for powerbooks aviable ??

  As Mat noted with his links, yes, there is specifically a cardbus (not the earlier-generation PCMCIA) interface for the Magma chassis with the later compact cable connector.  I own one, and an alternate PCI host card, for my 2-slot chassis.  As in most other instances, the shorter the cable, the better.

  I also own the earlier expansion bay interface for the Wallstreet Powerbook.  It has the original large cable connector and I use it with an older revision of the 4-slot chassis.  I also have the original version of the PCI interface card for it with the large connector.

  I was thinking of posting pictures of my own expansion chassis here along with some notes.  I'll look into it when I have some time.

[MacOS Plus]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread...

  I just wanted to comment I found it odd the manufacturer never offered the board-mount plug-end in a cable-crimp type also.  This would have made it dead-simple to assemble a simple two-headed cable that could have joined two of the Digi 5-node cables into one 8-node.  The demonstration PCBs depicted in the photo in the catalog would have been great for this if they actually had all the tracings joining the two headers they attached to it, but alas it seems not.  It would end up costing far less to just build a longer cable from scratch than to make such a board.  The point is moot for me anyway because I already own an 8-node cable.

  Does anyone have the source listing for the comparable connector on the nubus TDM cards?  Those I could use because I only have short cables for that version.

[RTIInstaller]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread...

  I just wanted to comment I found it odd the manufacturer never offered the board-mount plug-end in a cable-crimp type also.  This would have made it dead-simple to assemble a simple two-headed cable that could have joined two of the Digi 5-node cables into one 8-node.  The demonstration PCBs depicted in the photo in the catalog would have been great for this if they actually had all the tracings joining the two headers they attached to it, but alas it seems not.  It would end up costing far less to just build a longer cable from scratch than to make such a board.  The point is moot for me anyway because I already own an 8-node cable.

  Does anyone have the source listing for the comparable connector on the nubus TDM cards?  Those I could use because I only have short cables for that version.

I might be mistaken but I thought the nubus connectors were readily available? at most electronics parts centers?

I initially tried to locate a connector that could be used to splice two 5 node cables together, but I was never able to locate a part that would work for this purpose that came pre assembled.

[mrhappy]

I just wanted to comment I found it odd the manufacturer never offered the board-mount plug-end in a cable-crimp type also. 

I think that cable length is the major problem here. The reason that 'only' 7 MIX cards are recommended in a 13 slot chassis is due to the cable length and not being reliable beyond the 7 card distance. They probably figured it wouldn't be worth the reliability headache by throwing 'extenders' into the equation.

[Trace-Elliot]

super !!  thank you !!

[donnynall]

im trying to figure out what order to put the cards in the chassis. i have 2 controller cards which one goes in the computer and which one goes in the chassis? whats the model number that goes in the computer? if anyone could help i would greatly appreceate it thank you all

[mrhappy]

There's a bunch of info in this thread that should help you out.

http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,2172.0.html

[donnynall]

ive looked it up and down and its no where to be found.

im trying to figure out what order to put the cards in the chassis. i have 2 controller cards which one goes in the computer and which one goes in the chassis? whats the model number that goes in the computer? if anyone could help i would greatly appreceate it thank you all

[Knezzen]

It's hard to say without some more info or pictures. Just try the cards in different positions and see what works

[donnynall]

did all that but no dice:(thanks anyways

[mrhappy]

If you run Digitest it should show you which slots the cards go in and if they're ok.

[MacOS Plus]

  Card order within the chassis depends on which model number it is.  Digidesign has quite a bit of reference material about this as it applies to their systems, but even I had a hard time figuring it out.

  I have two SBS chassis that use the 85224030/85224040 interface board pair.  From everything I've read about SBS/Bit3, the lower-numbered board goes in the host computer and ideally should go in the slot nearest the CPU.  The chassis-end card should have a clearly-marked dedicated slot in the chassis and must go there.

  The other things critically important are that the board pair must be a properly matched pair, and in some cases the bridge chip must be a certain later version to function at all in anything later than a beige-era Mac.

[mrhappy]

And to add to this: The bridge/magma card in the chassis is identical to the one in the computer.
Switching the cards places from the chassis to the computer doesn't do a thing functioning wise, everything works just as great as it did before the switch. So you could probably just buy two of the magma PCI cards with the connector you want and the cable you want, and it should work.

Knez this is an interesting 'discovery!!

On your chassis model it would normally have:

 'P7B Backplane'... 01-03515-00 (the board with the PCI sockets)

'Interface Card'... 01-03522-00 (the card installed in chassis)

'Host Card'... 01-03521-00 ( the card installed in the computer)... going by memory here so I'm not 100% sure of the numbers

So Knez... are you using 2 'Interface' cards or 2 'Host' cards in your rig?? This could make things easier for someone trying to piece together a system, knowing that 2 of the same cards could be used!!

FYI... was doing some troubleshooting yesterday and was attempting to get a Magama 7 slot working but I don't have the proper 'host' card... so I tried using the 'interface' card in a Quicksilver but the QS wouldn't start until the card was removed. It IS possible that the 'interface' card is bad but if not, then the 'host' and 'interface' cards aren't interchangeable.

Kneezan were you using 2 'host' cards in your rig??

[Blzproductions]

Hi

Bit of a noob in some ways...although I've been using Macs since OS7.something (I do miss my original Startrek screen saver).

Have set up my TDM system quite nicely (TDM MIX 3 with SampleCell TDM) and have an SBS expansion chassis and cable lying around. I can find compatible host cards on Ebay, but don't know if I'm going to need extensions/drivers/software to get the Mac to see it. Don't really want to spend $100-£200 on the host card if it's going to be dead in the water, and I can't find any usefull info in this regard online.

Anyone know what the score is here?

(Apologies if I'm going over old questions/discussions again)

Cheers

B

[mrhappy]

Think there is a bunch of info in this thread that could be of interest.

http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,2172.0.html

[Syntho]

 I used to have the SBS 7-slot chassis and the cable it came with appeared to be proprietary and 68-pin. i was just doing inventory and stumbled upon another cable just like it, but with one difference: this time the connector is wider and is 80-pin. Exactly the same, but wider. Does anyone know if the 80pin one was for a 13-slot chassis or something else maybe?

[teroyk]

I used to have the SBS 7-slot chassis and the cable it came with appeared to be proprietary and 68-pin. i was just doing inventory and stumbled upon another cable just like it, but with one difference: this time the connector is wider and is 80-pin. Exactly the same, but wider. Does anyone know if the 80pin one was for a 13-slot chassis or something else maybe?

There is old version cables and cards (physically wider, don't remember how many pins) and new version cables and cards. 7-slot chassis are in both versions (not sure about anothers). PCMCIA cards are only for new versions.