Have you verified that pin 1 on the adapter is connected to pin 1 on the cable when connected through the 40 pin male to male bridge ?

At least I tried the adapter in each possible position and direction „into“ the cable. Is it that what you mean?

No. I mean what I said.

To clarify it a little,
just take an IDE cable and put the connectors together,
any way you like using your male to male connector,
so that pin 1 on one connector (it's marked by a little arrow on the connector and tends to be the colored wire on the flatcable),
is connected to pin 1 on the other connector, and all the pins are connected, ie 1 to 1, 2 to 2, etc...

weedeewee is right, confirm that pins are mapped correctly at the other end when using the gender-changer. It's hard to explain in writing but I bet they aren't.

Thanks I will check at home. This is my bridge. It’s a simple pin extender. Pin-by-pin

I know what you meant with the male bridge. Please, Understand that you will never get the cable connected correctly to the ide2cf adapter with just that bridge.

I think I understand. I need a bridge which somehow re-connects the pins correctly.

It will be inverted, no?

Pin 40 would be pin 2, etc..

Besides, those kind of adapters usually dont respect master/slave operation ANYWAY.

There are MUCH BETTER adapters, that ARE made for life on a (shared) cable.

Like this Syba one.
https://www.amazon.com/Syba-Compact-Adapter-E … a5b58feeadc4dc3

Thanks as well.

This is the real adapter I use behind the (wrong) bridge:

https://www.ebay.de/itm/123970756803?mkcid=16 … emis&media=COPY

You know, if you have another one of those male to male adapters and an ide cable, you can hook it up. Though you'll need to have it at the end of the chain. not in the middle, if that even cooperates with another device.
ie,
controller, ide cable, male to male, ide cable, male to male, ide2cf adapter.
😁
the first one sticks the odds to the evens, and the second one reverses them again. Only thing left to mind is that pin 1 connects to pin1 and not pin39. and do not use the middle connector on the second cable from the controller.

Ha interesting approach thx all

or this https://www.ebay.de/itm/235187226398 IDE 40-poliger Stecker auf Stecker flaches Band Festplatte Verlängerungskabel ?

Haven't quite worked it out in my head, but could you just get a 40 pin male IDC connector and crimp it on to an existing cable? Or get a whole extension cable like https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/115877431226 ?

Thank you all. With delivery expenses this will become to expensive. I therefor will replace my flash adapter and send to old one back.
An extension cable won’t do it.

Thanks a lot to all