HP H220 / LSI SAS9205-8i pin header

[Bruce Howells]

I have a 9205-8i, HP badged. I'm painfully curious about the J3 pin header on this card.

I've only been able to find (even in the LSI documentation) descriptions of J4, which is on a small pitch, as the JTAG port. Nothing at all on J3 which is a normal pitch for useful things like, oh, LED activity indicators.

So... does anyone outside of the HP guy who drew the schematic know what the mystery J3 is for, and how it might be put to good use?

 

[jgreco]

These are often used to integrate with backplane, mainboard, I2C, etc., special functions to make the server "work better." Fifteen years ago, usable discrete LED activity signaling was still a thing on a RAID card, but these days it will probably be something less useful.

 

[Bruce Howells]

There I go, admitting I'm an old-timer in public again. :) Interesting thing is that a bunch of LSI cards in the same family do use it as a LED header, but this one doesn't document it but does have the same header in the same place.

Ah well. Blinkenlights withdrawal continues. Thanks for the reply!

 

[jgreco]

Don't let me discourage you. Anything's possible.