This store item is a 3-drive "start" backplane, designed for use with either 1" or 1.6" high drives, and fits into the space of three CD-ROM drives. The backplane exposes a DB9 connector which is ideally suited for connecting to a copper PCI card with the appropriate cabling. Also present on this backplane is a green LED for each drive which indicates drive activity and a single amber LED which indicates a warning/fault.
Most mid-tower ATX cases have four CD-ROM drive bays and one installed CD-ROM drive, but if that won't work, then the "brick" of three drives will sometimes fit in the bottom-front of an ATX case.
Creating a loop of backplanes is simple. One Cat5e patch cable is required for each backplane, and if multiple backplanes will appear in the same loop, the patch cables connect the "out" of one backplane to the "in" of the next. Note that even if only one start backplane is used, a Cat5e patch cable must be used to connect the RJ45's together.
Now some general info on T-Cards:
This backplane is essentially three T-Card disk adapters combined to form a single unit, and converts the 40-pin SCA-2 connectors of Fibre Channel drives to allow a direct connection to a DB9 or HSSDC Fibre Channel interface, installed in a PC/Mac/workstation/etc., and also provides a power connector and jumpers for drive configuration.
Please note that all three positions must be populated with 1" or 1.6" disk drives or "dummy plugs" in order for the backplane to function properly. Installing less than three drives in the backplane prevents the loop from being completed.
Included with each backplane is a drive-mounting plate to support the attached disk drives.
These backplanes were designed and manufactured in the USA, and include a one-year warranty. Technical support is available by email.
This product was added to our catalog on Thursday 20 September, 2007.
