HDI-30 Part Number?

Oct 15, 2021
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Anyone happen to know the part number for Apple’s HDI-30 SCSI port as featured on many models of the classic PowerBook line?

hdi30_connector_shape.png
 
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This Does Not Compute

Active Tinkerer
Oct 27, 2021
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I suspect there were multiple manufacturers for HDI-30 ports and plugs over the years. I found some reference to Hosiden manufacturing them, though they (perhaps unsurprisingly) don't seem to any more. (Fun fact: it looks like IBM used it on one of its portable PS/2 models!) I've found that Apple's hardware developer notes will often call out specific connector part numbers when only one manufacturer makes them, such as the external floppy connector for the PowerBook 2400c (Molex 2629-2611). Here's a good repository of PowerBook dev notes, maybe an example part number is included in one of them?
 

3lectr1c

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May 15, 2022
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Yeah no idea, sorry. @nickpunt is pretty good at tracking weird connectors down. He found two weird laptop power connectors on a 68kMLA thread, not sure how active he is here though. I had a quick look on google but couldn’t find anything.
 

nickpunt

New Tinkerer
Jul 28, 2022
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I couldn't find the exact one, only one that had the same pin layout. However the pin sizes might be different. After scouring a ton of 30 pin connectors the only one that seems to match is by Amphenol FCI. Part number is 52057-102LF (at mouser). FCI has a whole 'Metral' series of backplane connectors, however these are much newer than the HDI-30 so I'm not sure it would even fit.

Keywords to look for are "5 row" and "6 pos", as those denote the pin layouts of various connectors.

Further research opportunities:
* Email various connector companies (see also their HDI-30 page) as well as TE connectivity
* Try to find Apple's HDI-20 floppy connector manufacturer, as its probably the same (its 4 row 5 pos). Alternately the HDI-45 video connector
* "Square DIN" might get you somewhere but I didn't find anything with it in a quick search. Also, HDI-30 is slightly rectangular.
* Find out what the name of the metal cage(?) surrounding the pins is, that might narrow search (it can't just be 'plug' can it?)
* This is likely a legacy connector not used anymore so that might need to be included.

This was an interesting read on Amiga's weird square power connector.
 
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mmu_man

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Jan 30, 2022
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I'm afraid the FCI one doesn't have the correct pitch, looking at the drawings. I remember looking at those without much luck either.

Which one did you need Ron, cause I'm planning on recreating a male one, but I wasn't thinking about the female part. I suppose I could look into it too.
 

mmu_man

Tinkerer
Jan 30, 2022
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Ok, now you'll make me think about it all night long instead of sleeping… I have a plan… 🤔
Btw, I already had measurements taken, the horizontal pitch is (11+7.8)/(2*(6-1)) = 1.88mm and the vertical pitch (4.5+7.3)/(2*(5-1)) = 1.475 … which I'd round to 1.5mm.