Asante IIsi, SE/30 daughter card video feature

[Von]

I saw this in the Ebay Finds thread:

We're veering off-topic but I already have an SEIV and two Hammer cards.

To get us back on topic, there's a little discussed feature of the following SE/30 Asante card. Notice that the daughter card is actually two connected cards. The 15-pin "Thick" connector can be unscrewed from the standoffs and taken off so that a 15-pin monitor connector can be screwed in beside the 10bT connector. This gives you ethernet *and* video at the back of your SE/30 or IIsi. I'm sure a lot of you know about this feature, but I bet a lot of people have never noticed or known about this...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-Macintosh-Asante-Tech-Ethernet-Card-Mac-SE-30-or-IIsi/123291796464?hash=item1cb4c383f0%3Ag%3An6IAAOSwEMpbZk8A&_sacat=80053&_nkw=asante+se%2F30&_from=R40&rt=nc&LH_TitleDesc=0

View attachment 24265

And yes, that is a very cool feature.  My first Asante card did not have this so here is the MacGruber I needed to do to run the Asante with a video card:





I made the back plane out of an old PC case sheet metal with some Dremel work. The card is rotated 90 degrees so that I could use the mounting screw for the "Thick" connection to hold it in place.  Because it was close to the back of the tube it is protected with a plastic sheet covered in electrical tape.

Fast forward to the only real "deal" I have come across on Ebay. That was for a Misc Mac parts grab bag.  It was a single auction that included 3 of the Asantes with the special  detachable "Thick" daughter card and a MicroMac Carrera 040 with the IIsi card.  I think it was only $65 w/ shipping.

So here is one of those cards in action:

 

[tact]

XCEED o.o

 

[Bunsen]

The 15-pin "Thick" connector can be unscrewed from the standoffs and taken off so that a 15-pin monitor connector can be screwed in beside the 10bT connector. This gives you ethernet *and* video at the back of your SE/30 or IIsi.

Wow.  While I can appreciate the convenience and flexibility, my gut instinct is that replacing one connector with another that looks identical and is completely different electrically is just asking for trouble.