Analog rack backplane idea?

[Steven Curtin]

>However such a system would involve quite a dedicated design phase, from
>backplane pinouts to sheet metal to edge connectors on the circuit
>board. I mean, I could do it, but I don't see the effort being justified
>by the demand. It would just be nice to see somebody do it....

Maybe this is obvious- One thing to keep in mind about card cages is that
the cards have a way of working themselves loose.  Make sure to add some
kind of bracket mounting like the PC or better yet use the front edge of
the board for the front panel.  I used to own a Buchla quad mixer (Grant
Richter owns it now) and the VCA cards were always working themselves loose
since there was nothing holding them in the card connector other than the
edge fingers.

This would be an especially nice idea for a bus-based patching system like
the ARP 2500.  The E-Mu Voice Demo Board in my system has all of its inputs
and outputs on an S-100 edge connector, I think something similar to this
board was used to construct the E-Mu Audity.  The PAiA CEM experimentor
cards also bring their i/o to contacts on the side of the board that can be
plugged into a socket.  I think Grant Richter's system also uses card edge
connectors.  

Steve C


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Steven Curtin  
http://www.emf.org/people_curtin.html
Lucent Technologies - Bell Labs Innovations
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