AAUI Transceivers-- Are they interchangeable between brands?

[joethezombie]

Are AAUI transceivers interchangeable between brands, both the cards and transceivers?  The reason I am asking, I have a combination video and Ethernet card for the IIsi that has an AAUI port.  I have an Apple branded transceiver that works great with my Quadra 700.  But when I use it with that combo card on my IIsi, it doesn't light up at all.

The combo card has an Asante branded Ethernet portion, so will I need an Asante AAUI transceiver? Or is something hosed with the Ethernet portion of the combo card?  TattleTech does see both the video and the Ethernet portions of the combo card.

Anyone else have one of these combo-cards?

 

[Anonymous Freak]

Yup - AAUI (and the bigger-connector AUI) are "standard". You can use any AAUI adapter on any AAUI port.  (Just as you can use any AUI adapter on any AUI port. I've used an HP workstation AUI adapter on a NuBus AUI card on my Mac.)

 

[joethezombie]

Ah, ok, thanks. I'll try some more in-depth troubleshooting then. Hopefully it's just continuity from the ribbon connector on the card to the AAUI port on the back plate.

 

[trag]

You clearly have something different, but in the similar experiences department, the ethernet daughter card that goes on the E-Machines Futura IISX video card only works under Classic Networking. It does not work with Open Transport. There might be something in that which is clueful or possibly completely irrelevant.

 

[NJRoadfan]

AAUI was a standard, but only widely deployed by Apple. IBM made one Microchannel Ethernet adapter that used it (and called it "Mini AUI"), the LAN Adapter/A

http://ps-2.kev009.com/ohlandl/NIC/LAN_A.html

Even there it was rarely used as that card has a RJ-45 port.

 

[joethezombie]

I want to say here with authority, that NO!  Not all AAUI transceivers are interchangeable!  I have three Apple branded M0437 transceivers.  They all work great with my Q700s and LaserWriter Pro 630s.  But they DO NOT work AT ALL with the Asante card on the dual PDS combo card in the IIsi.  No link or activity indicators, just dark.

However, on a whim I bought an Asante FriendlyNet transceiver.  It works perfectly on the combo card, and works with the Q700s and LaserWriters.  Who'da thunk?!!

 

[Cory5412]

That's very odd, because as I understand it, these transceivers are all literally just a weird looking Ethernet port that internally can convert Ethernet to different media, often passively.

I wonder if Asante wired up something differently *("wrong") to try to sell their own transceivers with those cards, or if something else was wrong.

 

[beachycove]

No lights mean no power.

I've concluded that some units just make a poor electrical connection — as I have seen this behaviour too, where a given transceiver will only work in some machines. The physical tolerances are small enough to cause such anomalies.

 

[lisa2]

The original AUI standard provided 12V to power the transceivers.  Later on, most transceiver chipsets only required 5V.  I was aware that some AAUI ports only provide 5V instead of 12V and I will bet that the Asante card does not provide the 12V that the Apple transceiver requires.

Rick  

 

[Gorgonops]

My favorite AAUI adapters were the ridiculous triangular Farallon Etherwave ones. (Middle unit in this picture

These transceivers basically have a three port ethernet hub built into them; one "port" leads to the Ethernet card, and the other two are there so they can be daisy-chained together to make an Ethernet network without a stand-alone hub or switch. It's pretty ridiculous and this topology actually violates several recommendations in the Ethernet specs, but they made them this way so Mac admins that were used to LocalTalk/PhoneNet wiring wouldn't have to switch to a star topology.

(They work fine as normal transceivers, just hook either port to the upstream switch, but the passthrough it still amusing and once in a blue moon useful.)