koning@koning.DEC (Paul Koning -- LAS Engineering) (03/21/86)
Kevin Crowston asked about cheaper ways to get cables; here are some comments. Because of the high data rates, you should be careful if you decide to make your own -- be sure to use cable that is twisted-pair and shielded well enough. That's in fact all there's to it in Transceiver cable, so I'm not sure you can do much better other than saving a little on labor. If you don't need Teflon cable, don't use it, and you'll save a bundle. Check various vendors... Also, to give one example, DEC recently added a style of cable called "office use" or some similar term; this is relatively thin and flexible, light-duty cable. It's great for use in benign environments but you wouldn't want to let it into your factory; that's what the standard heavy duty stuff is for. These cables also come in rather short lengths, which may be just what you're looking for. Another approach to investigate is the new Thinwire ethernet. You can get repeaters that tie standard to thinwire (the DEC product actually has 8 thinwire outputs, rated at something like 30 stations each). The connection to the thinwire is via BNC T through a rather small adaptr that's BNC on one side and transceiver plug on the other; rumor has it that you can plug these directly into the distribution panel on the back of your system box (i.e. you may be able to eliminate the transceiver cable entirely). Please note that in much of what I've just told you -- the stuff about specific things that are available -- I'm working from memory, and this isn't quite my specialty, so if the information isn't 100% right don't blame me. But you should be able to readily get information about any of it. paul koning