[mythtv-users] OT: Hard disks randomly not found

[Brian Wood]

On Monday 25 May 2009 11:03:57 Alex Butcher wrote:

>
> It might be worth investing in some SATA cables with latching connectors,
> such as those from startech.com.

I've switched over to the latching cables completely, seems to make them a lot 
more difficult to loosen with a bump.

Definitely a better way to go. Short of that, a small dab of RTV silicone to 
hold the connector helps, be sure to wait 'till it cures fully before moving 
the cable.

If you look carefully at a SATA connector on a drive, you will see that some 
of the conductors protrude more than the others, these are the ground 
conductors, so that when you hot-swap the grounds will "make" first, but it 
also means you can have the non-ground conductors not making without it being 
obvious.

This same principle is used on the female ends of 3-conductor audio 
connectors, that's why they are sometimes called "QG" connectors for "quick 
ground". It's done so the ground makes first and you don't get a loud buzz 
from an open unshielded input line. These connectors are also 
called "Canon", "XLR" (from the Canon part #) or A3M/F (from the Amphenol 
part #s).

Almost any connector designed for hot-swap will have this sort of "grounds 
make first" feature.


-- 
beww
beww at beww.org