Modding Guide: Inline SATA Connectors

[adsfasdkjfh]

Thank god that knife isn't sharp.

[MrWillager]

Hey I was wondering how many sata connectors can you have on one sata power line. I want to put like 9 haha

[TheIVImann]

how do you do the sata conectors? i´v used up all my sata on my motherboard. do you use a raid card, and if how did you fit it inside?

[shaun11652]

i have 5 wire on mine end and when i put it on my cd drive the cable is to short to reach on to my harddrive help

[K3vindust]

Dude this is very helpful,thanks for sharing..

[PoundSighEL]

do you have to worry about low voltage when connecting 5+ HD's?

[donte415]

dude you got mad skills! im trying to do something like the black dwarf...

[bestpctips]

cant you take the molex contector from the cables that you took apart and attached them to wires so you can make it removeable from the power supply?

[thergbig]

LOL. lobster. u don't look like one.

[imonke1]

@UnknowLobster How many in-line sata connectors can you use on one line?

[DJDevon3]

I just found some online. No need to buy the whole cable and rip them off. You can find them at 2 places online right now. Search for "90 Degree Pass-thru SATA Connector". Currently 79 cents a piece. :)

[DJDevon3]

Black Dwarf is hands down my favorite custom pc. I've been searching for hours on how to connect multiple SATA drives like you did. Add Black Dwarf into your keywords, it took me hours to find this video. You've given me a lot of inspiration. I'd like to see how you connected the data cables. You left that out of the worklog too! You use forward breakout cables to go from SAS to SATA? I'd love to see a guide on how you laid out the data cables and HDD activitity cables. You are a guru.

[UnknownLobster]

Thanks. The data cables were simple sas to 4x sata fan out cables. There arent a lot of options for these so things kinda had to be twisted and squeezed in to fit. The hdd activity cables were wires from the raid card directly to the led's. They use the same wire and connectors that the power buttons/ led's on the motherboard do. If your looking for those a good place again ive found is ebay. Search "twisted jumper" or "wire jumper" and you'll find some pretty cheap bundles to work with.

[BaKeR12ReP]

Make more tech Vids :)

[royce321]

i always wondered how u did such clean wiring lol nice tutorial :)

[CitrusC]

Useful video. Thank you very much, Lobster.

[thegeekredneck]

Awesome, never thought of doing this and to be honest I didn't know that SATA power connectors used this type of punch-down connection. Awesome, thumbs up!

[c1rca121]

:o i didnt get this video in my sub box

[Poseidon205181851435]

Great filming. Great advise. Thanks MAN.

[GLaDOSProductions]

How did you do the RAID status LEDs for the Black Dwarf?

[UnknownLobster]

@GLaDOSProductions A lot of raid cards have pinouts for activity and failure for each drive. They wire just like the single HDD activity light that motherboards have along with their power button, reset, etc.

[blackIce504]

@GLaDOSProductions if u google SATA pinouts you will find the sata activity out but only some hard drives use it, from memory its pin 11 on the sata power connector.

[Mjuukiz]

First: Great vids. Admire your skills and workshop :)

Second: You really don´t need to press the cable into the connector with a screwdriver.

Just apply all the cables in the first "gap" in the connector, then use the lid and press all the cables at the same time with a tool.

[UnknownLobster]

@Mjuukiz Good tip, I'll have to try that next time.

[LG51hacker]

haha bicycle D:

[tr3v3rs0n]

If my PSU already has a sata power cable could I just add these in between the ones already on the cable??

[UnknownLobster]

@tr3v3rs0n Sure. You can also just add them into the line with the 4 pin molex connectors as well if you want to keep them.

[ASAWProductions]

what is the 3.3v for?

[UnknownLobster]

@ASAWProductions I've looked around quite a bit and there's no clear answer as to particular devices that actually require it. Perhaps future drives, particularly SSD might need them, but for now it seems you're pretty safe without it.

[ASAWProductions]

@UnknownLobster Thank you. I was going to use them for SSDs. I found a SATA extension cable and I will use that to put the in-line connectors from a molex splitter on. Thank you for this video.

[MJBDC07]

@UnknownLobster please make a video on how to do the optical bay cover mod seen here watch?v=HRjIhcsQYzQ looks awsome

[ivan13091981]

@ASAWProductions  it was used for old 3.5" floppy drives,some flash drives like CompactFlash

[powerhouselb]

I would love to see the tutorial of what you did to the Black Dwarf"s power supply to make it work.

[lapulapu12345]

nice vids man..

[yoyoyoyohan]

how many harddrives do you think one 4pin cable could handle? Say a 300w psu for a NAS/htpc etc?

[soggymaster]

@yoyoyoyohan It's not that difficult to figure out how many HDDs a power supply can handle - you need to know the power supply's capacity on each voltage and rail, if applicable, and the power draw of each HDD.

As an example, my PC Power and Cooling Silencer 750 PSU has a capacity of 30 amps at 5 volts, 60 amps at 12 volts and 24 amps at 3.3 volts. That's 150 watts at 5 volts, 720 watts at 12 volts and 79 watts at 3.3 volts. You can see one of my previous replies for an HDD example.

[kaptinkurktutorials]

Thank you so much for this! I've been wondering how you did that

[Lil306]

Very nice, good luck with the new job, I hope to see more of your videos. You have awesome editing skills and you do great jobs

[ingame79]

thnx, good job man

[DoctorEngrish]

I would love to see the painting process for your mods. I've built a couple custom cases with my buddies but they all look a bit cheap. The paint jobs on all of your projects look top notch. Do you paint them yourself or outsource?

[sonofkikkoman]

dude what is that car in the bg?

[t3ch4]

weird, I was thinking the same question. Great vid man!

[Write14u]

Thanks so much

[BuloZB]

useful videos subscribe :)

[stefanlg55]

thanks man, i asked you how u did this. But i never expected a video, You did good :)

[dlix]

do a wire sleeving video

[The0IdMan]

Congrats on the job, dude. Sounds pretty cool.

[Acronius13]

personally i would love to see more of these modding guides from you, i think that the projects you have shared with us on youtube are without a doubt some of the most amazing things I have seen anywhere

[iStalkApple]

Not being personal but what job? Like is it in Technology or if Burger King or something then nvm

[UnknownLobster]

@iStalkApple lol, its doing video and graphics stuff for a new production company.

[beejc1128]

Ahhh man, this video is such a teaser! I was hoping for more of one of your amazing work log type vids. Although this video is helpful.

[UnknownLobster]

@beejc1128 Sorry, Those take a long time and I'm trying to get videos out a little more often. Hopefully I'll get get a "proper" video out sometime soon.

[Jiraya12345]

Great video, thanks for posting!

Also, which would you recommend- battery or outlet powered soldering irons?

[deathventure]

@Jiraya12345

I know it wasn't directed at me, but battery powered soldering irons are great for quick one off jobs. They aren't powerful enough to do heavy soldering for very long. As far as outlet powered, I recommend a digital read solder station with adjustable temperature output. The reason for that, the plain 1 temperature irons you get for 5 bucks often get too hot and you go through too many tips or you get the item you're trying to solder too hot. Hope that helps.

[Jiraya12345]

@deathventure

Don't care, your advice was useful too. I'd been wondering whether or not I should buy a battery powered one (my dad had always told me that they were crap and I shouldn't bother with them).

[deathventure]

@Jiraya12345

This is relatively cheap, but works well. Look up ZD Electronic Tools ZD-929C on google. Great for general use. Only problem I've found is I've had to replace a 1000uF power supply capacitor on them after about the 2nd or 3rd year of use. They use an underrated voltage cap, so that's just a warning if you do decide to use that. Otherwise, a Weller would be a good option. Like I said, the battery is great for quicky jobs here and there, but full blown projects, go for the station.

[UnknownLobster]

@deathventure Yea, I just have a $50ish weller, it doesnt have a digital readout or anything but it has a simple dial to control the voltage you sent to it that helps.

[UnknownLobster]

@Jiraya12345 I've actually never used a battery powered one so I cant comment, sorry.

[ASSEMblerEX]

You must really want to cut yourself with that knife. Basic safety

[daxweb]

pls

don t leave us

ok ... u have a job ... but remember you have a passion....

[giorgio1apple]

How do you sync the video from all three cameras?

[DaMirrorLink]

@giorgio1apple editing :P

[bobbyt2012]

@DaMirrorLink You sure? He uses Premier a lot, he does have final cut, but I thought he usually used Premier.

[DaMirrorLink]

@bobbyt2012 yes but he edits them so it syncs correctly :P

[bobbyt2012]

@DaMirrorLink So that makes it apple editing?

[DaMirrorLink]

@bobbyt2012 you can sync the videos with either editing, its not locked specifically to one program, in WMM on XP I could do it easily with it

[UnknownLobster]

@bobbyt2012 lol, I think he just meant editing. "apple was part of the name of the guy he was responding too.

[bobbyt2012]

@UnknownLobster Oh, haha, that makes sense. What did you use?

[UnknownLobster]

@giorgio1apple While it can be done in any editing program, I used adobe premieres multicamera editing feature to make it much easier.

[mitchnesbitt]

what about the sata data connectors? any cool way to do those?

[UnknownLobster]

@mitchnesbitt Not really. The best thing you can do is order cables that are exactly the size you need.

[ReggyRay289]

If you could make a beginners guide to computer building. I am comfortable with all the work you do other than the stuff with hooking stuff up and making it work. I know there are forums but I would prefer to not to have to try sift through the fan boys and people that are full of shit.

[UnknownLobster]

@ReggyRay289 I'll keep that in mind, thanks!

[ShiggityShigg]

Congrats on the job! Where @?

[UnknownLobster]

@ShiggityShigg Thanks! It's this lame place called snapjudgment (dot) org. I mean they're awesome!

[cliffjh]

great vid! thanks for this tutorial, was wondering how you did that.

[MultiGeekster]

1st thing how many HD can you have hoock up to one molex ? and 2nd what cams do you use ? thanks

[soggymaster]

@MultiGeekster 18 AWG (a very common wire size in computers) copper wire has an ampacity of 10 amps, which on 12 volts DC is 120 watts of maximum power. Some drives run on 5 volts DC, again 10 amps on 18 AWG is 50 watts of maximum power. Aluminum wire, which is much more common in computer power supplies and can't carry as much power as copper can. I haven't found an exact number on aluminum wire, but I'd figure about 8 amps at 18 AWG for aluminum wire; 40 watts at 5 volts and 96 watts at 12.

[soggymaster]

@MultiGeekster You'll need to know the power requirements of each HDD you'll be putting on the circuit. For example, if you're putting Western Digital 2TB Green 32mb cache drives on a circuit, it's power requirements is .6 amps at 5 volts and .45 amps at 12 volts; 5.4 watts at 12 volts and 3 watts at 5 volts. With 18 AWG copper wire, you can put up to 16 drives on one circuit, but I wouldn't because of Locked Rotor Amperage (Google it). I'd put no more than 12 such drives on a circuit.

[UnknownLobster]

@MultiGeekster The other responses covered the first question better than I could - it depends on the drives.  The cameras are Sanyos. A vcp-fh1 in the back and a vcp-hd2000 for the closeups. (the main camera is also a fh1.)

[kippenkopjes]

thanks this helps a lot

[TheGeekSam]

liked how you had closer views, makes the video amazingly easy to follow :D

[soggymaster]

Appreciate this very much! Thanks again.

[adamh3212]

first?

[Xylo23]

@adamh3212 first you are.