Can't iddentify this old disk drive power connector

[zanthia]

Hi,

I have an old Compaq 486 (without a hard drive) I wanted to use an IDE-CF adapter but I have a problem with the power cable of the computer :

What kind of molex is that ? Is there an adapter I could use ?

I found this very old (and very expensive !) hdd on ebay that has a female port for this weird connector : http://www.ebay.com/itm/IBM-171MB-I...073181?hash=item3f5b06355d:g:O7wAAOSwcu5URoJ2

 

[fatwizard]

I have never seen a power connector like that, but Compaq often went out of their way to make things proprietary. You might make an adapter for it. If you have a meter, you could measure the voltages present on the connector. I would try assuming the center conductor is ground, and likely you will find +12V on one side, and +5V on the opposite side. If that isn't correct, you can switch around the meter leads to discover which pin is ground, then the other two pins should be +5 and +12.

Facing the back of the CF adapter, the power connector on the adapter, from left to right the pins are +12V, ground, ground, +5V.

What model Compaq is this?

 

[fatwizard]

I just found an old Conner IDE drive in my collection that has that 3 pin power connector. My voltage measurements indicate that the power connector is arranged like this. Looking at the rear of the drive, the pin nearest to the edge of the drive is ground, the middle pin is +12V, and the innermost pin is +5V.

 

[Chuck(G)]

I've got several old Conner (<500MB) drives with that connector. From Stason:

The mating connector for the 3-pin connector is Molex series 54-84
(header), Molex part number 39-01-033 (housing), and terminal part
number 39-00-0031 (loose) or 39-00-0023 (strip).

3-Pin Power Connector Pin 1 + 5 Volts
Pin 2 +12 Volts
Pin 3 GND

 

[NeXT]

Ohhhhh. So that IS a power connector!

I've seen the three pin socket for it many times on the ProDrive series from Quantum. I've heard rumors it was for power but the connector and pins were so absurdly tiny I always doubted such because of how much current a hard drive would draw, plus excluding the fact I've NEVER seen a power cable for it it seemed pointless as there was always the molex plug beside it.

 

[flashedbios2012]

this would explain why quantum hard drives would fry when I tried to put jumpers on those pins.....

 

[GiGaBiTe]

Yeah, the drive is going to be very sad when you short a power rail directly to ground, or to another power rail.

I do remember seeing that connector on some of my really old drives, but I tended to ignore it.