Drive caddy differences

I just received an empty drive caddy for the CF-28 from my seller on eBay today, and I had followed along with the instructions for disassembling and reassembling the caddy that was posted in an earlier thread. I noticed that on the caddy I received the copper sheet and the bottom plastic piece are different than what is shown in the pics.

Are there normally differences in some of these components for the caddy based on the model of Toughbook you have? I looked through some of the previous posts in the forum and did not see any mention of this.

If anyone needs a pic of the items, I can post them in any replies I get from you all...thanks in advance.

 

Mark,
Its not perfectly clear what you are asking, but I think what you've got is one of the caddies which has a drive heater. Don't worry about it, it won't use any battery power unless it needs to on a really cold start up, and you never know when your Penguin might need to borrow your Toughbook. Just follow the instructions and all should be well as long as it all fits in.
CAP

 

Cap, thanks for the info. My only concern is the potential for the copper sheet shorting the connecting cable, but I think that's a remote possibility.

 

I think that you got a caddy for a MK1 and what is posted is for a MK2/3 caddy .Correct me if I an wrong.

 

Big, I am not able to tell you, but attached are a couple of pics of the caddy. The first one is the caddy itself, and the second one shows the copper sheet. I appreciate your input on this.

 

You are good to go. That copper piece was there to actually shield the modem and/or wireless modem from any HD interference. Technically, this isn't needed anymore and can be discarded. Or, you can simply install your drive with it in. Won't hurt either way. Thanks for the pics, that always helps!

BUT, if I am wrong, then slap me silly and call me a Dell owner...

 

Awesome! Thanks for the help folks...I'll be getting the DVD drive, battery and AC adapter in the next few days, then I'll see if it will past POST! If it does I'll be setting it up as a dual boot (XP and SUSE Linux) machine.

 

Mark-Doobi,
I'm not so sure. The copper foil might have some heat transfer function, its awfully heavy for just an rf shield, and its not between the drive and the modems underneath. At least that's always been my assumption. You might want to check this out, before you discard the copper sheet. As for the thickness of the caddy, it doesn't matter unless you have a MK1.
CAP

 

I had one of those foil sheets as well, and it hooks up to NADA. I would find it hard to believe it is a heat-wrap that uses none of those EEL-EK-TRONS that mnem is always talkin about. Unless it's kinetic of some kind, or absorbs heat from the unit and collects it there, but that is also unlikely in that it's purpose is to warm the drive for starting; wouldn't do much good if it had to be running first to generate heat. I'm pretty sure this particular foil wrap was for shielding. Like I said though, I could be wrong. I just think to be a warmer, it would have to plug in?

Not a very good picture, but you can see the warmer on the right, below the gold foil. It looks slotted and silver in color.

 

If you had the heater it would plug in to a connector on the drive cable. The copper foil he has is an EMI shield and privides some additional shock protection with the black bumpers and just sits on top of the ribbon cable. The heater resembles a maze of silver tape stuck to a piece of milar and folds over the drive. All 29 caddies had the heater but doobi it appears that your is missing in your picture. is that an aftermarket caddy?

 

That is a picture I got off of google, but it appears the heater is there. Look again and tell me if that's it. It is silver in color and is slotted. It's hard to see, but you can make it out below the copper.

 

The point I was making is that if it is the heater it would have an electrical connection to the drive cable. If yours didn't connect to anything as you stated, then it was not the heater.

 

Duly noted. Thanks again.

 

Doobi,
I was thinking the copper might be to carry heat away from the drive, kind of like a heat sink. I stand corrected.
CAP

 

Mmmhmmmm...

My inspection of the one I have on my CF-28 Mk3 reveals it appears to be constructed like a Faraday Cage around the hard drive ribbon cable. My guess is that the heater element draws a fair amount of current when it runs; probably enough to generate some spurious signals that COULD interfere with the data channels on the cable. This is just a guess of course; though I do find it curious that the heater element wraps around to the PCB side of the HD and there is no such shielding there. Of course it's possible Panny R&D did testing that revealed an issue, and the testing also revealed that just shielding the ribbon cable solved the problem.

mnem
Things that make you go Hmmmmm...

 

Well it's all assembled with the copper on top of the ribbon cable and it is currently in my 28. DVD drive is arriving tomorrow according to UPS and hopefully will have the battery and adapter by this weekend or Monday, so we shall see. Thanks again for the assistance Doobi!

 

Were all forgetting the possibilty that the copper inside was just something some tech argued needed to be there due to "interference issues" to justify them keeping him on staff at 100k+/yr. I say if it looks pointless and works without it, scrap it lol

 

That is a very early CF-28 HD caddy. EVERYTHING in the picture is needed! Everything. The copper does several things. But mostly it provides padding to the hard drive! Without it the hard drive would not be as protected. There should be one below and above the hard drive. You can orient the plastic pads toward the side of the connections so there will be no shorts. If fitted correctly (As in the left side picture you first posted) it will also keep stuff from entering into the hard drive caddy.

You do need to make sure everything goes back into it... But it is kind of forgiving on how it goes together.

 

I did get the battery and DVD drive today, so I plugged everything in and it passed POST without a hitch so I know I put the caddy together right . I went ahead and loaded XP Pro SP2 on it and it recognized all components except video and hot keys. Once I loaded the drivers for those it is working beautifully. The battery had a full charge and lasted just under 3 hours, which included OS install, DVD playback and install of some software. Still waiting on the charger but that should get here tomorrow.

 

Ummm... one note... my caddy came as OEM spare parts with the seal across the seam (which I broke myself taking the cage apart) and there was only ONE copper foil in it. Also, the lower half of the folded over sheet was BETWEEN the heater element and the ribbon cable, with the top half over the ribbon.

I'm pretty sure mine was as manufactured by Panny, so...

Just a FYI.

mnem
*Slaps that Y away*

 

While we are on the subject of cf-28 caddy’s

Which models had the heater?

I have had all the models but only found the heaters in the mk-3’s

So I’m thinking the heaters are on the mk-3’s only

I could be wrong on this as I have not had many of the caddy’s apart

Anyone have a mk-1 or mk-2 with a heater?

Alex

 

Alex, my Mk2 cf-28pcjazfe has got a heater.... my mk3 hasn't.

Both off ebay, so anyones guess how they landed out of the factory.

Regards SImon

 

Mnem... You have the later version of caddy and you are, of course, correct in how it goes together. The very early versions had only the white gel surrounding and either a plastic or copper padded plate (As shown in the photo) for the bottom and a copper padded sheet for the top. ALL that I have seen like this did NOT include a heater. It's my understanding that the heater was an available option on the CF-28 and became standard on later models.

 

Ahhh... gotcha.

I just wanted to make sure that little detail was noted, since people were taking the caddies apart even as we spoke. I could see where if one were careless or didn't know, one could slip that bottom layer of the folded copper sheet between the top of the hard drive and the heater instead of between the heater and the HD ribbon cable. I don't imagine it could possibly make any difference at room temp, as both the copper sheet and the case of the HD are at ground plane potential. But if the heater ever DID come on, I could see that placement being VERY important.

mnem
The devil is in the details...