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From: bet@george.mc.duke.edu (Bennett Todd -- gaj)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
Subject: Re: Transfer files between PC and IRIS?
Message-ID: <22146@duke.cs.duke.edu>
Date: 9 Apr 91 18:30:31 GMT
References: <1991Apr5.222307.5567@eng.umd.edu> <1991Apr5.232621.86@minyos.xx.rmit.oz.au> <1991Apr9.124403.2358@cs.dal.ca>
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In article <1991Apr9.124403.2358@cs.dal.ca> bill%biome@cs.dal.ca writes:
>In article <1991Apr5.232621.86@minyos.xx.rmit.oz.au> rxcob@minyos.xx.rmit.oz.au (Owen Baker) writes:
>>
>>Why not spend a little extra and get an ethernet card for the PC. [...]
>
>Is this as simple as it sounds?  I have a PI 4D/25 with an ethernet port
>and a WD card for my 386 and absolutely no knowledge about ethernet.  I've
>been informed that the PI connector is thick wire and the BNC T-connector
>on the WD card is thin wire, so that I need an expensive interface box as
>well as the cables. [...]

The PI only has the Ethernet Transceiver Drop cable connector (DB-15 with
slide lock). It needs to be plugged in to a transceiver. You can buy a
skinny-ether transceiver for pretty cheap; I imagine $150-$200 would be a
reasonable guess. If you don't want to pay someone a bunch for a transceiver
drop cable then get a foot or so of 15-wire ribbon cable, plus two ribbon
cable DB-15 connectors (one male and one female), and mash them on. Buy a 50
ohm coax with BNC connectors to go between the PI and the PC, and a couple of
terminators (or a couple of spare BNC connectors with a couple of 50 ohm
resistors, and solder up your own terminators). Add one BNC tee, and you are
in business. Plug the transceiver drop cable (or the ribbon cable) into the
PI. Plug the skinny-ether transceiver into the other end of the drop or
ribbon cable. Plug a terminator onto one end of the transceiver, and the 50
ohm coax on the other. Plug the tee into the other end of the 50 ohm coax,
and tack the terminator onto the end. Plug the side drop off the tee into
your PC.

We use 15-lead ribbon cable w/ press-on DB-15 connectors for transceiver
drops wherever we don't need a long length. You lose the slide lock, but the
ribbon cable is so much lighter and more limber that the simple friction fit
holds it on securely.

-Bennett
bet@orion.mc.duke.edu