White Whale ribbon cable alignment

hypnosapien · January 17, 2018, 4:32pm

Purchased a used WW that arrived yesterday (thanks, @t4w!) Per the WW documentation:

Align the ribbon cable so the red stripe corresponds to the white indicator on the rear of the module’s circuit board.

When I connect the cable in this fashion, the module does not power up or power the grid. If I reverse the ribbon cable, it powers up and works as expected. I’m using a Pittsburgh Modular EP-96 case: https://pittsburghmodular.com/structure-1/

What am I missing here? Is this something unique to the +5v on the Pittsburgh power supply? Am I going to fry the WW if I continue using it like this? Thanks!

tehn · January 17, 2018, 5:09pm

can you post photos of the ribbon cable, where it attaches to the power supply, and it connected to the WW?

hypnosapien · January 17, 2018, 10:44pm

This image shows how the ribbon cable is connected when everything seems to work fine.

laborcamp · January 17, 2018, 11:34pm

Based on that photo you are just fine now.
The ribbon cable is made "backwards.
Typically red stripe indicates the -12V, and as you can see on the bus board the -12 is on the unmarked side of the ribbon cable. So as long as the -12V side matches the “white stripe” on the module (or otherwise marked indicating -12V) you should be fine.

hypnosapien · January 17, 2018, 11:43pm

Great, thanks for verifying!