SATA power connector: which moron invented it?

[Behemot]

I am curious which idiot had to create new power connector as it is completely useless PoS in my opinion. Sice size benefit is almost non-existent over peripheral molex (and you can still use Berg which can handle lower current but is even smaller). It can withstand lower currents than standard molex even using expensive gold-plating.

Disk drives cannot rely on +3,3 V because of backward compatibilty with molex so it is not and will never be used. Not mentioning better efficieny of DC-DC module from 12 V compared to pulling +3,3 V from PSU and the fact the +3,3 V rail will one day be dropped from the ATX completely.

So the SATA is more expensive, handles less current and carries useles pin position. You cannot buy plane SATA connector anywhere because it is some proprietary PoS, compared to molex you can buy for cents everywhere. I often make different custom cabling for fans and stuff so I use molexes quite often but newer PSUs are filled with more and more SATAs and less molexes. So I need either to use splitters (and than pull hundreds of watts through couple connectors) or buy bloody expensive SATA-to-something adapters. And for example to power VGA safely you need to use 2xSATA-to-PCIe adapter because SATA can only handle 4,5 A per rail (54 watts vs. 75 watts for PCIe) where single molex can handle 11 A (so even the worst chinese crap will do at least 75 watts).

[luke10050]

Re: SATA power connector: which moron invented it?

i have noticed (from experience) that the sata power connectors are good with shorted components. when too much current runs through them they melt a bit of plastic that holds the connector down and stop power from flowing (from what i understand)

[Behemot]

Re: SATA power connector: which moron invented it?

That is nice feature but I somehow doubt they design it with this in mind

[Turtlewax]

Re: SATA power connector: which moron invented it?

I happen to like SATA connectors because they are much easier to connect than the old style data and power connectors. Molex is notorious for pushed pins & poor contacts. So far i have not had those issues with SATA.

[Behemot]

Re: SATA power connector: which moron invented it?

Yeah but you can repair molex for like 30c even if you needed to replace all pins. Cannot do anything with SATA. Sata plastic cover also breaks, rendering it useless.

[rhomanski]

Re: SATA power connector: which moron invented it?

I had a sata break on my power supply. I ordered a new piece of plastic and didn't replace the pins. All better now. I don't know about Prague but they are available in the US. http://www.frozencpu.com/products/17...tor.html#blank .

[Behemot]

Re: SATA power connector: which moron invented it?

Do you need some special tool for that? And it's still female, for male connector, I can only get that from Alibaba. But I can ask some generic chinese manufacturer there to make me connector with solder leads anyway; I trust soldering more than these mechanical joints.

[Per Hansson]

Re: SATA power connector: which moron invented it?

I'm curious who invented the stupid Molex connector?
It's just a PITA to connect and disconnect.
When connecting the pins never line up so you have to muck about until they do.
When disconnecting the shit is often so hard to get out that you need to use a plier.

No such problems with the SATA power cable, never had a problem with SATA power.
I agree with the 3.3v part though, utterly pointless crap.

[Behemot]

Re: SATA power connector: which moron invented it?

Yeah it's sometimes pain in the ass to connect. Never got problems disconnecting though.

On the other hand, it is much more mechanicaly resistant and can handle much higher stress. Actually, I think quite often you'd break joints/PCB itself rather than breaking the connector. Unlike SATA.

[rhomanski]

Re: SATA power connector: which moron invented it?

The pins should be crimped, probably with a special tool. Since only the plastic broke on mine, I simply put the original pins in the new plastic.

[Behemot]

Re: SATA power connector: which moron invented it?

That even posible? I thought it is somehow melted in or something, definitelly looks strange. Stranger than molex which is very easy to assembly.

[rhomanski]

Re: SATA power connector: which moron invented it?

It depends on the power supply. Since I haven't dealt with many, I can only talk about mine. It has plastic keepers that hold the pins in, you just lift the plastic and the pins slide right out. The replacement I got was exactly the same as the broken one so it was an easy change. I guess I got lucky. I ordered some pins expecting to have to change them but it wasn't necessary.

[ben7]

Re: SATA power connector: which moron invented it?

TA is more expensive, handles less current and carries useles pin position. You cannot buy plane SATA connector anywhere because it is some proprietary PoS, compared to molex you can buy for cents everywhere.

Hmm, reminds me of HDMI

However clunky and hard to disconnect, the molex connectors are great, they make for a good connection. That is how connectors are supposed to be. Never had/seen any fail so far, though I suspect the cheap chinese copies might fail more.

[kaboom]

Re: SATA power connector: which moron invented it?

So the SATA is more expensive, handles less current and carries useles pin position. You cannot buy plane SATA connector anywhere because it is some proprietary PoS, compared to molex you can buy for cents everywhere.

The idiots had their way. After the SATA signal cable, they couldn't resist a "mee-too" with that stupid power connector. The wires aren't even crimped to the contacts, they're "punched in," with stranded wire! Remember how the old telco docs warned to only use solid wire with the punch-downs?

I have a formerly cheap molex-to-two-sata power adapter cable.

I must've disturbed the molex end to where the male pin for +5 nearly lost contact. Now, the two 103SJs derive their -5 rail, for the head amp, from the +5 coming in. There's an inverting buck-boost converter with a P-channel mosfet, diode, and 1.2uH SMT inductor.

The PWM controller, integrated into the motor/positioner IC, seems to have ramped the duty cycle all the way up til the inductor saturated. The mosfet shorted, putting DC into the inductor, after which a now-fusible "jumper resistor" opened.

Granted, this was a molex pin, since both drives had the same failure, but cheap connectors suck no matter what.

I have soldered the pins on the SATA connectors, since they were again stranded wire in a "stab-in" arrangement, as well as spread the male molex pins. I will replace the male connector with another one if I feel that the pins tend to lose their spring.

For testing purposes, I used an external supply to provide the -5 for the head amps, and the drives still work. I've got a good drive signal to the (open for testing) gate pads, so it appears that some new MOSFETs should fix the drives.

Yes, component level HDD repair by yours truly.

[Behemot]

Re: SATA power connector: which moron invented it?

I got some luck contacting one manufacturer for crimping/soldering male connector. If it will go well, will have several hundred of them for sale for less than a dollar.

[Agent24]

Re: SATA power connector: which moron invented it?

Overall I prefer the old style ones. Tougher but easier to fix if you do manage to break it.

I have not had a problem with them being too tight (except on one hard drive, once) but they are tighter than SATA ones, which I like, as they don't fall out.

SATA is too easy to knock loose and to break, especially on the drive-side connector, where boneheads usually snap the plastic off.

[momaka]

Re: SATA power connector: which moron invented it?

I like the older style, "Molex" connectors better as well. Not only are tehy easy to fix, but also easy to mess around with. Need to measure PSU voltages with your DMM? No problem: stick the DMM leads right in the connectors. Or, need to plug a fan for some makeshift extra cooling? -Just shove its wires right into a Molex connector, and it's all good.
You can also move whatever is connected to the Molex connector as much as you want, and it will never disconnect or loose contact even for a microsecond.

The wires aren't even crimped to the contacts, they're "punched in," with stranded wire!

I've seen that crap before too. And to top it off, on one cheap Molex to SATA power connector, the manufacturer simply cut the wires coming out of the last SATA connector and didn't bother placing any sealant or protective sleeve over the wire stubs that were sticking out. If this connector was left loose in a PC case, it could easily short out the 5V or 12V rail to case. Now that is just too lazy and cheap!

[tmiha71]

Re: SATA power connector: which moron invented it?

And SATA power connector is putting more strain on hard disk counterpart connector (5 wires against 4 which MOLEX has)...

Actually it is step back...

Wonder why disk manufacturers are using them, they could stay at MOLEX, and not even blink at various proposals/standards/ads...

[mariushm]

Re: SATA power connector: which moron invented it?

One of the main reasons why the sata power connector was introduced was missed by pretty much everyone here : low insertion force, required for "hotplugging"

All sata devices are supposed to be hotpluggable - remove or connect into the system whenever you want. Can't do that easily with a molex connector.

Connector is designed in such a way as to have the ground wires always make contact first (you can see the metal blades for ground coming a few mm closer to the exterior) - molex connectors don't have that.

You can only plug it in one direction (and the physical case of the connector blocks you from putting it the other way) unlike molex connectors which in theory are also keyed in real world lots of morons use extra force to plug them the wrong way.

The power connector by designed has 3 metal contacts for each voltage and ground wires for redundancy and by necessity (not safe to carry that much current through only one of those, each contact is rated for 1.5 amps) and this redundancy was already taken advantage of by changing the role of one of those ground contacts, it's now used for "staggered spinup/special functions" in drives that support it.

Quoting from Wikipedia cause there's no point saying it in other words:

For each of the three voltages, one of the three pins serves for hotplugging. The ground pins and power pins 3, 7, and 13 are longer on the plug (located on the SATA device) so they connect first. A special hot-plug receptacle (on the cable or a backplane) can connect ground pins 4 and 12 first.

Pin 11 can function for staggered spinup, activity indication, both, or nothing. It is an open collector signal, that may be pulled down by the connector or the drive.
If pulled down at the connector (as it is on most cable-style SATA power connectors), the drive spins up as soon as power is applied. If left floating, the drive waits until it is spoken to. This prevents many drives from spinning up simultaneously, which might draw too much power.
The pin is also pulled low by the drive to indicate drive activity. This may be used to give feedback to the user through an LED.


It's really not much difference.. molex can do 5-8 amps, sata can do 4.5 amps on each rail.. sata is easier to insert and it's not that "deep" so you can use a strip of sata power connectors easier to connect several drives

And you CAN buy sata connectors of all kinds from Digikey, Farnell.. it's not like Behemot says. I don't know what the big deal is.

[shovenose]

Re: SATA power connector: which moron invented it?

I've seen plenty if hard drives that were permanently damaged on the SATA port. It's still less hassle of a connector