WTB: Ultrabay SATA HDD Adapter

[Behemot]

Looking after few of these adapters:

Marketing PN: 40Y8725
FRU PN: 26R9246
other P/N: 26R9247

They have that stupid proprietary UATA connector and convert that to SATA via built-in Marvell chip.

I reside in CZ, but colleague of mine visits US couple times a year so it is possible to ship there for cheap and he'll take it with.

[BobA]

PM sent.

[Thinkpad4by3]

Actually its called JAE Slim-IDE and its not proprietary at all.

[Screamer]

He was referring to the Ultrabay Enhanced/Slim drives, though. Those Ultrabay drives do not utilize the JAE KX15-50KLD connector, but some strange proprietary connector.

Have a look at this image; notice the differences? The proprietary connector is on the top, and the JAE KX15-50KLD connector is on the bottom.

[Thinkpad4by3]

He was referring to the Ultrabay Enhanced/Slim drives, though. Those Ultrabay drives do not utilize the JAE KX15-50KLD connector, but some strange proprietary connector.

Have a look at this image; notice the differences? The proprietary connector is on the top, and the JAE KX15-50KLD connector is on the bottom.

I thought they were the same connector all this time because they looked really similar. You learn something new everyday.

[Behemot]

Daaamn, for some reason the e-mail notification for replies was not working (again).

Well that's exactly how it is, IBM wanted to be clever (again ) and used proprietary crap.

I am just wondering, if the pin positions are the same, maybe it could be removed from unused optical drive and soldered to some fleebay UATA-SATA caddy?

[unixed]

You can find one on the 15.0" T60 interposer card and you can work out the pinout from the PATA HDD adapter.

[Behemot]

That could actually be the same, once they change the physical dimensions or shape, there is no reason to swap signals around. After all, it still has 50 pins. The question is whether these El Cheapo fleebay caddies do report 80pin cable?

[Behemot]

I got one from BobA to whom I thank with all me heart There are some cracks and stuff but nothing that would impact usability (and I'll try to fix all that).

The inquiry is still valid, I got a crate full of different models which all accept this adapter and besides that, I could only put second battery or UATA adapter inside, instead of optical drive with little to no use at all in 2020.

If somebody has the UATA adapter, I guess I could put that to use as well, you can occassionally run into some decent capacity UATA drive still. Those would be:

curved bezel (T40)
Order PN, marketing part number: 62P4554
FRU 62P4553
ASM P/N 62P4552
flat bezel (T60)
Order PN: 41U3148

[cadillacmike68]

I have several of these. Most of mine have PNs of 45J7901 and 45J7902. They have the tap that prevents them from being put in a T40 series. I also have several brand X - aftermarket ones that take a SATA HDD without the tab so that they will fit in T40 series and T60 series. And I have several of the IBM T40 series trays (41U3148) that take IDE drives and will fit in T40 / T60 series (and the other letters).

I'm assuming you need this for a T/R/X/Z 60 series - correct?

What is UATA? We refer to these drives as IDE or PATA.

I didn't know that connection from the tray to the machine was proprietary. Didn't Dell use the same connector?

Max capacity I know of on a PATA laptop drive is 320GB. I have a few WDs in this size.

[dr_st]

What is UATA? We refer to these drives as IDE or PATA.

Ultra ATA. It's half-proprietary terminology for a certain subset of ATA/ATAPI enhancements.

[Screamer]

Nope. Dell used a different connector for their Latitudes, but whether if it is used on every single model with a PATA connection, I do not know. kfzhu1229 might have more information regarding this, seeing as he knows them very well.

I believe it is a TE Connectivity 1770530-1, which is not the connector that was used for the Ultrabay Enhanced and Slim. Those bays used a different connector, which is a JAE PM1F050N1AE.

[cadillacmike68]

Well, then it's Not a proprietary connector. It's just not what some other company(ies) used.

[Behemot]

I have several of these. Most of mine have PNs of 45J7901 and 45J7902. They have the tap that prevents them from being put in a T40 series. I also have several brand X - aftermarket ones that take a SATA HDD without the tab so that they will fit in T40 series and T60 series. And I have several of the IBM T40 series trays (41U3148) that take IDE drives and will fit in T40 / T60 series (and the other letters).

Got couple of models, mostly T41, some R60s, T61s, IIRC.

Looking once again at PM1M050H1AE vs. KX15-50KLD, they appear to have the same pin positions so in theory a least, it should be possible to swap one for the other. The question is, did IBM keep the same electrical pinout, so pin 1 through 50 of KX15-50KLD were the same as pin 1 through 50 of PM1M050H1AE? It would make little sense to do it differently, if the pin positions are the same, the ODD manufacturer just put different connector in their drive without any extra changes/costs, but…you never know once they start messing with these kind of things.

ADD// OK so I went ahead and disassembled one old server drive and one T61 drive (three screws was just not good enough for IBM so they used 6, aluminium tape and transparent tape around the whole drive ). Going after GND and +5V pins according to https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_tJXf ... Photo0.jpg shows all these pins are where I'd expect them. Pin pitch is the same too, so it does indeed appear that it should be quite OK to replace the KX15-50KLD in a generic chinese ODD caddy with PM1M050H1AE and it may even work!

[Behemot]

I've started negotiating with one of the chinese manufacturers of ordinary IDE-to-SATA caddies whether they can make me a few prototypes with the JAE connector.

Maybe I'm somewhat running ahead of myself, but if those prototypes would work, I guess there would be other ppl here interested in these caddies, right? Cause all the other resellers stopped selling those. It will surely cost somewhat more than the usual caddy, but I don't see any reason for it to sell for like 100 US bucks as some morons try to sell the last pieces now.

[RealBlackStuff]

Why not buy a few old/non-working CD/DVD-drives from that type?
Take their connectors off and attach them to your caddies-with-wrong-connector?

[Behemot]

That was my thinking the first time, but the pins are SMD, soldered partially beneath the connector. That would be extremely problematic to solder with soldering pen. It could be done easily with soldering station, but that's extra cost - and if I can buy it already made with the correct one, why all the troubles, right?

Seems like they are even one step ahead of me - they already offer those! Just burried on the website, had to get the correct model number first. So I'll try to get a few pieces, test them with all the different UATA laptops I have, and if it will work woth most, I can get one full batch (100 pcs) and resell the rest for other storage_space-hungry thinkpadders

[Behemot]

I've started a new thread to continue the discussion, as I no longer need to buy any, I'm locking this thread.