Connector interchangeable with Tecra 780CDM and some other models.

Hey this happened to me too! I got a Tecra 500CDT and it had no hard drive pack installed, I'm borrowing a Tecra 750's hard drive pack to fit a hard drive in it.

Well done working out what the modern equivalent of the connector was, most of these connectors I just expect are gone now. If you share the design I'm keen to try that out on my tecra 500 😀

If there's a PCB designed, the connector shape makes me think that a cheaper alternative might be to have the adapter PCB just go in the slot directly. Then it could adapt out to something like a CF-IDE - where the 44 pin connector could just be soldered onto some pads on the PCB.

Got the PCBs back from the fab but unfortunately I overestimated the amount of space available in the laptop so I've had to squash everything together and order another prototype. Will share gerbers if I get it working.

ah that's unfortunate, was it too tall or too wide?
It would probably be tricky route them all on a 2 layer board of that size?

Well, I wish you luck with the next try, I'm interested to see how it goes together and in trying out one with my Tecra 500CDT when you get it working 😀

Just a little bit too tall, even after trying to rescue the board by filing it down. I think the revised version will work, although it will probably be a bit fiddly to solder without melting the plastic on the connector. If I knew what I was doing it might make more sense to make it a printed flex cable like the original but I'm far enough outside my comfort zone as it is.

There were some long postage delays in receiving the second version of the board, but I have it now and it seems to work just fine. I currently have a CF card installed in my Tecra 510CDT using one of those dirt-cheap adapters, and it boots into DOS 6.22 with no problems. A 2.5 inch drive will also fit in the bay with the adapter, but it requires a bit of careful contortion.

I have attached the gerber files for anyone who wants to try this but please keep in mind that I am not an electrical engineer and don't necessarily know what I'm doing. All I did was import the two connectors into EAGLE, match the pinout in the service manual with a standard 44 pin IDE pinout and then ground pin 6 of the PAK-50 connector (which is HDD detect) and autoroute it. There is a tiny dot on the silkscreen of both of the imported connector footprints denoting pin 1, and I added a couple of labels so you can at least see which side of the pcb is which.

This is the part I used for the laptop side, which only fits after dremelling a bit of the plastic off the sides. They do make one that fits without modification, but I couldn't find it for purchase in hobby-level quantities. For the drive side, I used this. The drive ends up sitting upside-down in the tray (or right-way-up when the laptop is in use) because this is the way the laptop's connector is oriented.

When soldering, use a small tip and take care not to short one of the vias to neigbouring pads. Unfortunately, the autorouter was not able to completely eliminate the need for vias due to lack of space. I would also recommend trimming down the pins on the back of the IDE connector and insulating it with electrical tape, because it sits right next to a metal part of the HDD bay (at least in mine it does).

Woah I didn't spot that you'd posted this, thanks for the update 😁

I'll give this a try with my Toshiba 500CDT - I'll probably use it with a compact flash adapter & card so that placement isn't a problem.
Also, I've been trying to find the connectors used on some of these old Toshiba, sony, IBM laptops etc and well done finding the specific part that fits, it's tough.

I have been looking for a solution for the same model laptop.

Say I wanted to make this, how do I use the gerber files to order the adapter?

You'd order boards from a PCB manufacturer like PCBway, JLCPCB or another like that. They're usually not cheap in the UK/US etc, but the Chinese PCB makers are quite cheap.

Then you'd need to order the parts in SanguineBrah's post and solder it all together.

It might be nice if an adapter like this existed, then you could just desolder the CF connector from a cheap CF>44pin-IDE adapter and plug it straight in: https://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=133435
Hmm, this and the T4900CT's elusive hard drive connector. At this rate we should start a repository / shop for these HDD adapters.

Thermalwrong wrote on 2022-02-12, 20:26:

You'd order boards from a PCB manufacturer like PCBway, JLCPCB or another like that. They're usually not cheap in the UK/US etc, […]
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You'd order boards from a PCB manufacturer like PCBway, JLCPCB or another like that. They're usually not cheap in the UK/US etc, but the Chinese PCB makers are quite cheap.

Then you'd need to order the parts in SanguineBrah's post and solder it all together.

It might be nice if an adapter like this existed, then you could just desolder the CF connector from a cheap CF>44pin-IDE adapter and plug it straight in: https://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=133435
Hmm, this and the T4900CT's elusive hard drive connector. At this rate we should start a repository / shop for these HDD adapters.

Its the how to order the parts based on the files provided i haven't figured out yet 😉

Uploaded the entire zip file here, and got a PCB.

https://www.pcbway.com/project/OnlineGerberViewer.html

Hi SanguineBrah, do you mind telling us what is the connector model that does not need dremelling? I may be able to source some from Chinese website Taobao.

Also, is it possible to share the schematic of the PCB? I could do some customization to the PCB, e.g. add solder mask to the via, use thicker trace for power pins, etc.

Thanks!

chen_xin_ming wrote on 2024-08-07, 04:42:

Hi SanguineBrah, do you mind telling us what is the connector model that does not need dremelling? I may be able to source some from Chinese website Taobao.

Also, is it possible to share the schematic of the PCB? I could do some customization to the PCB, e.g. add solder mask to the via, use thicker trace for power pins, etc.

Thanks!

I found it! I wanted to know since I'm looking around for some other vintage connectors. Trawling through mouser and through old datasheets on the usual suspects (hirose, amp, kyocera, molex) yielded nothing at all. Lots of connectors that almost fit but do not because of the unique profile of this connector like those guide pegs on the laptop side. It's a japanese laptop so the board connectors are probably made by a japanese company too.

What worked was uploading a picture I took of the connector on the laptop to google image search since the colour is distinctive - which found a similar (but incompatible!) item on ebay and looking closely at it all the features matched up:

And the paint mark serial number on the connector confirmed it.

Here's the website for it apparently it's a live part? Though the actual original part code doesn't seem to be in the current parts list: https://www.kel.jp/product/product_detail/id=376&p_cont=39
Here's a full original datasheet: https://web.archive.org/web/20240607090021/ht … 66b8153af23.pdf
I've never heard of KEL before, I wonder how many other japanese manufacturers are just not well known / available on the english web.

Looking at the part code decoder and my HDD pack connector close up, it's the "8913-050-178S-A-F":

It's that specific one because it's got no flanges / hooks which seem to be a more recent addition. Hope that helps 😀

And while I'm at it I've got the hard drive caddy for the T4700CS / T4700CT / T4800CT / T4850CT / Tecra 700 / 710 / 720 / 730 / 740 models - why do those very different laptops share the same caddy design?

It says "AMP" on it and it seems to be an AMP / Tyco / TE-Connectivity - CHAMP .050 (inch) "FH" type connector with 60 positions. Detailed in here: https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/243482 … nnection-system
It's completely out of production but maybe this can still be procured from component warehouses somehow.
I think it's this top one: 5917628-2 - original through-hole part that connects to flex pcb
5917629-2 (9mm stack)
5917630-2 (10mm stack)
5176371-2 (taller etc), 5176372-2, 5176373-2, 5176374-2, 5176375-2, 5176376-2
5176378-2 (18mm stack)
right angle: 5176379-2 - this one's good because you could make a simple PCB for it and though it couldn't fit a full size 2.5" hard drive you could still fit a compactflash / ssd inside the caddy.

With the original part, you'd need to wire it up ideally with a flex PCB.
Sorry to hijack the thread with this extra one but it fits the topic since it's also for a tecra 😀

Thank you Thermalwrong! I did some research on my side and reached the same conclusion as yours: it is the 8913-050-178S-A (or -A-F). Unfortunately I don't find any seller of it. I do find a SMD variant (8913-050-178MS-A) that has inventory on Taobao. But its footprint is 30% larger than the through-hole model, thus it can't fit within the height of the HDD bay if I still want to use SanguineBrah's manufacturing technique.

I'll stick with the model P50LE-050P1-R1-DA (KEL has a copy of this exact model too, model number 8931E-050-178S-F, similarly priced, you can get whichever that has inventory, they all need to be dremelled to fit).

I redesigned SanguineBrah's PCB to make some minor improvements. I'll opensource the schematic and PCB once I get mine from the fab.

I looked closer into KEL's 8900 series mating matrix. Assuming the PC side connector is 8901-050-177S-A, it should mate with both 8911 and 8913 series.

So I found some 8911-050-178S-A on Taobao with good price. I'll report back once I got them in hand.

Cool, good luck with it 😀 I'm looking forward to your findings with these different connectors.

It's great that we don't have to rely on a DIY connector instead like a PCB that jams straight into the connector. BTW I also noticed that the Toshiba 400's CD-ROM / Floppy SelectBay connector is also one of these KEL connectors but with 80 pins.

Thanks for the pointer to the mating matrix table, that's really informative.

The 8911-050-178S-A has arrived, and I can confirm it mates with the laptop's connector without mod.

So we can use any 8911 and 8913 series with 50 pins in KEL's handbook, I'll opensource my PCB design later, and possibly sell a few spares I've made.

chen_xin_ming wrote on 2024-08-29, 20:28:

The 8911-050-178S-A has arrived, and I can confirm it mates with the laptop's connector without mod.

So we can use any 8911 and 8913 series with 50 pins in KEL's handbook, I'll opensource my PCB design later, and possibly sell a few spares I've made.

Awesome 😀 How much do the connectors cost to get?
Looking forward to the adapter, I assume since it's a through hole part it'd be just a PCB adapter and that would offset a 44-pin IDE connector to fit regular size but thinner laptop hard drives.