Looking to purchase the link cable for the XTS-600 system made by Vertical (Vodavi) Communications. This gray cable is approximately 8 feet long and has 'Amphenol' type connectors on each end. Although this cable appears to be a simple male/male 25 pair cable, it is not. It is 32 pairs, and the connectors are 64 pins. The cable is silver/gray in color with black plastic connector covers. One end connects to the MPB-E card in cabinet #0 and the other end connects to the LMU-E card in cabinet #3. This cable was sold in a kit that included the LMU-E card, Vodavi part number 3035-06, and we would be willing to purchase the card too if you have both available for sale.
Ed, I had really hoped to be able to come through for you because I have an MBE-2 but couldn't find the LMU-e card or cable anywhere. But if you can't find the cable, I do have my Amp Palm-Grip tool that also has the 64-pin champ connector holder which means that I could make a cable for you if you can get the champ connectors. I could also loan you the tool if you prefer.
It may come down to this, Dave. Those cables are apparently made of an unobtainum isotope (TM: Arthur P. Bloom). The problem is that I don't know how the cable pins out, what the maximum length is, and even worse, where to find shielded 32 pair cable!
If I can trust my memory (increasingly difficult these days) the pins were all straight through. But I do recall that on some applications, the length of the expansion KSU cable was critical. I once had a Triad-1 with an EKSU that had to be mounted far away from the BKSU because of space and had continuing problems until I re-installed everything according to the specs. As far as the XTS goes, I only had 4 customers with an MPB-2 and don't recall the LMU cable ever being as long as 8'. But I still have one user left and can measure that cable for you the next time I am out to their site if that helps. Whether or not you could make a shielded 32-pair cable using two lesser shielded ones would work, I don't know. But you may have no other choice.
The LMU2 cards were only used with stacked cabinets using MPB2 or MPBE processors. The LMU3 goes in place of the processor card in the fourth cabinet. The cable runs between the MPB and the LMUE cards in the first and fourth cabinets, respectively. That's the reason that it is longer than the traditional 1' cable used on the other LMUs. It might not be 8 feet, but it's definitely a few feet long.
I had a similar issue with STS expansion cabinet cables. We had a situation with zero room for the expansion cabinet, so we extended it with a 5' double-ended cable, but had nothing but phantom problems after that.
Yes, I know the LMU cable is not like the other EKSU cables as my remaining customer's cable is loosely coiled up. Bummer that I can't seem to find my spare one that came with the system I pulled from service.
I got one of our techs to take a picture of the connector on the MPB-E card and he said it looks like a regular SCSI connector. If that's the case, finding a six foot SCSI cable should be fairly easy to find. Take a look at this picture and tell me what you think.
Never thought about a SCSI but are they available in 64 pin? On line, the closest I find is a 68 pin
Mouser.com has 64 pin champ amphenol connectors. They are listed as 64 Position I/O Connectors
here
Ed, did you try these guys?
https://www.l-com.com/
I have not, Jeff. The problem is that I really don't know much about the physical aspects of this cable. How many pins are actually populated, how it is wired, etc. Nothing. Until I have this information, I'm basically pissing up a rope. I'm hoping that someone from Vertical will get back to me with this information soon as I'm going to need it within a few weeks. Thanks for all of the suggestions so far.