MOTM

Heh -- there sure were a lot of the 44 pin edge connectors around back
then.   Decent prices too...
That is what I used.  I had a small ARP style slider matrix switch that
I played around with for a while but then used 1/4" jacks - wired these
to a separate panel running up along the side. Built a wood case with
the 19" panels and the patch bay to the left (I'm left handed)

I ran into cross-talk problems too but cut this down a lot by using
pairs of wire peeled off ribbon cable that I twisted.  Soldered one end
to ground and the crosstalk problems were minimized.  Later on, I scored
a bunch of SCSI-1 wire that was twisted pair with a nice flat space
(about an inch long) every six inches.  The flat spaces were for IDC
connectors  (redundancy alert).  Hog heaven because now, I could run
multiple channels of audio for decent distances without crosstalk.

I sold the system too on arriving in Seattle.  Don't know what happened
to it and I really regret getting rid of it...

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Richard Brewster [mailto:pugix@...] 
> Sent: Thursday, March 10, 2005 7:58 PM
> To: Dave Halliday; motm@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: RE: [motm] Reconfigurable Modular
> 
> 
> I actually did build my 80's era modular into Vector CCA 19" 
> Card Cages.  Three cages in fact.  Each card was a fiberglass 
> perfboard with a 44-pin double sided connector.  It was all 
> hand wired, no printed circuits.  I had developed a method of 
> building electronics on non-plated perfboard by simply 
> soldering together the leads of components on the back side.  
> All ICs were in sockets.  All connections to the circuit went 
> through the backplane connector.  I used a non-regulated dual 
> supply with on-card regulation.  The panel was a single piece 
> of aluminum.  All knobs, LEDs and switches were on the left 
> side.  An unlabelled (but grouped by module) patch bay of 
> minijacks adorned the right side.  The cages stacked up, so 
> all patching was on the right side.  The hard part was wiring 
> the backplane connectors making a huge cable harness to 
> everything on the front.  I used military grade Teflon 
> insulated #24 wire.  There was probably a lot of cross-talk.  
> I sold this synth and years later got a call from the buyer 
> asking if I had the patch bay documentation!  I did not.  
> Somehow it had all been lost, including the schematics. 
> 
> BTW, notice my new email address.  I moved to a new house 
> three miles from the old one, and had to switch DSL 
> providers.  Sadly, my MOTM is still boxed up and will be for 
> some time.
> 
> -Richard Brewster
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dave Halliday <dh@...>
> Sent: Mar 10, 2005 9:57 PM
> To: motm@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: RE: [motm] Reconfigurable Modular
> 
> You are looking at something called a Card Cage.  Vector 
> makes them but
> they are _very_ pricey .
> Without the backplane (this means you provide your own edge connectors
> and mechanical support -- they provide the sheet-metal for mounting
> _their_ plugins, a 19" wide by 3U tall unit is $227
>  
> These are frequently available on the surplus market though. 
> When I was
> starting out in synthesys (building Electronotes circuits), I was able
> to get a bunch of them from a computer mainframe manufacturer 
> that went
> belly up and they worked out well. (The company made 
> peripherals for DEC
> equipment.  I was living in Boston at the time)
>  
> Vector
> http://www.vectorelect.com/Product/Subracks/CCK13-Series.htm
>  
> Newark -- Vector cardcage without backplane and plugins
> http://www.newark.com/NewarkWebCommerce/newark/en_US/endecaSea
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