modular panel standard??

[Jim Patchell]

Nick Zuccaro wrote:

>
> i was also wondering if anyone uses edge-card connectors, and
> how they work out. i'm not real familiar with them, but they
> look like a pretty nice circuit connection and also mechanical
> suport. i've kicked around gutting old computer motherboards for
> the isa connectors, but i don't know if a home-etch board would
> mount good to these. my mechanical <enclosure> design is not too
> far along, and there aren't really a lot of good references out
> there <except for jurgen's page!> so if you've had some good
> expierence with a certain type of mounting system/connector/etc.
> i'd definitley be interested in that. sorry if some of this
> stuff if FAQ, i have to get around to checking out some of the
> archives....thanks, Nick
>

    I have used card edge connectors in several of the synths I have
built.  The first time, I used Vector 3662 perf boards with 22 pin
fingers with a card cage that had 22 pin edge connectors with solder
eyelets.  I do not have a picture of the inside. :-(

    I also later, made a 22 pin back plane, this was primarily so that a
6502 based cpu card could communicate with with the others.  Analog
signals were brought out from the top of the card with IDC connectors.

    In the works, I have a backplane with 72 pin connectors.  The edge
connector again busses signals so a CPU card can communicate with all
the cards in the system, but there is also a 24 pin IDC connector on the
backplane for bringning out analog signals.  The main problem I have
encountered with this is that the 24 pin connector doesn't have enough
pins to do most modules justice, but that is a different problem.

    The schematic for this new back plane is at:
http://www.silcom.com/~patchell/jp2rest/backplane.pdf

    Somewhere these is a zip file of the PC board (preliminary) in the
same directory.  You can find a link to it somewhere on this page:

http://www.silcom.com/~patchell/jp2rest/jp2rest.html

    I don't know if I will ever get around to actually using this or
not.  Putting all the modules on one big board seems a lot easier. :-)

    But in the past, I have never experienced any prolems with any of
the cards or back planes I have used.

    -Jim