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From: dal@gcm.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.lans
Subject: Re: Special reward for Ethernet xceiver cable designer
Message-ID: <343@white.gcm>
Date: Tue, 1-Sep-87 09:05:13 EDT
Article-I.D.: white.343
Posted: Tue Sep  1 09:05:13 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 3-Sep-87 06:39:58 EDT
References: <44078@beno.seismo.CSS.GOV>
Organization: Greenwich Capital Markets, Greenwich, CT
Lines: 39
Keywords: male female mounting insertion stud screw
Summary: Adjust the stud shoulder height or replace slide-clip with screws.

> I suspect that many of you out there share my belief that
> if there is in fact any justice in this world, there is
> a special place in Hell reserved for the person who
> design the bloody clip which is claimed to hold a
> transciever cable in place at either end.

I couldn't fail to disagree less with this statement.  I have had more
trouble with those slide-clips than I'd care to mention.  In a
multi-vendor environment, it's amazing to see how many variations on a
"standard" there can be.  Add to that the fact that even with the best
fit, the cable can be pulled out without much trouble.

I have found two solutions that seem to work.  The first thing to try
is to reduce the height of the shoulder on the studs of the male
connector.  Some of these are shimmed with washers that can be removed
allowing the cable to be inserted further, making a better connection
and allowing the slide-clip to hold better.  Adjusting the prongs on
the slide-clip also helps.

Sometimes, however, this can't be done:  either the shoulder is too
high (e.g., AMP hood), or, with the new (read: cheaper) type where the
stud is screwed into a tapped hole in the hood (e.g., Cabletron) and
the stud has a wider, unthreaded section that prevents it from being
screwed all the way in.

If that fails or is impossible, I have found that retrofitting good old
RS-232-style screws works quite well.  You have to remove the
slide-clip (you can put it on the floor and stomp on it if you want)
and replace it with "female mounting hardware" (those little
socket-like things that you screw the screws into).  You also have to
remove the studs and replace them with screws ("male mounting hardware"
-- we can't be sexist; this is USENET!).  In the case of the hoods with
tapped holes, the entire hood must be replaced (I use AMP 745172-1).
This method works great with Suns.  These parts can usually be taken
from old RS-232 cables.  After all, who uses ordinary terminals any
more? :-)

Dan
seismo!philabs!gcm!dal