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ECB enclosure ideas [message #10750]

Fri, 03 May 2024 11:48

rcini
Messages: 64
Registered: October 2015
Location: Long Island, NY

Member

Has anyone seen this enclosure idea? I really like it and wonder what other ideas people have.

https://hackaday.com/2014/02/26/hackaday-68k-enclosure-backp lane-and-power/

Rich Cini

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Re: ECB enclosure ideas [message #10772 is a reply to message #10750]

Fri, 17 May 2024 12:07

rcini
Messages: 64
Registered: October 2015
Location: Long Island, NY

Member

Following up, I received the Hammond case from Mouser, and it's pretty slick. I made-up a version of the ECB-8 backplane as a 7-slot version with an ATX power connector. The board is a bit longer than the normal board (7.5" versus 6.6") to accommodate the mounting holes.

Right now, the only issue it seems is that Freerouting (v1.9) is taking forever to route it -- like pass 60 with still 10 traces left. You'd think that it would be easy since all the traces are parallel, but maybe not. Will let it grind away and I'll post the files when they're done.

Rich

Rich Cini

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Re: ECB enclosure ideas [message #10778 is a reply to message #10772]

Sat, 18 May 2024 06:41

rcini
Messages: 64
Registered: October 2015
Location: Long Island, NY

Member

Hey, can someone take a look at this draft of the revised ECB backplane? I've tried 3 times to route it and it gets into a loop at the end and won't finish. It's the oddest thing I've seen. Two traces left, pass #630. You'd think with all the traces parallel it would route easily, but not really...

Thanks!
Rich

Attachment: BackPlane.zip
(Size: 447.49KB, Downloaded 53 times)

Rich Cini

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Re: ECB enclosure ideas [message #10779 is a reply to message #10778]

Sat, 18 May 2024 10:06

tingo
Messages: 114
Registered: February 2017
Location: Oslo, Norway

Senior Member

Are you totally relying on an AutoRouter? Or are you routing some traces first?

Torfinn

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Re: ECB enclosure ideas [message #10780 is a reply to message #10779]

Sat, 18 May 2024 12:31

lynchaj
Messages: 1080
Registered: June 2016

Senior Member

Hi Rich
I've found that parallel backplanes are a special case for routing and are almost always better done manually. Trying to get an autorouter to consistently route a backplane will be an exercise in frustration because it can't see the obvious high-level order the traces should use like a human mind can do. FreeRouting is a great piece of software but it is certainly not up to the task. Save yourself some time and just route by hand. It will save you time and energy.

Best of luck, Thanks, Andrew Lynch

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Re: ECB enclosure ideas [message #10781 is a reply to message #10780]

Sat, 18 May 2024 14:23

rcini
Messages: 64
Registered: October 2015
Location: Long Island, NY

Member

Thanks. I was totally relying on FreeRouting to do it but I guess I overestimated its capabilities in that regard. I really don't want to route this by hand but I guess I will.

Rich Cini

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Re: ECB enclosure ideas [message #10782 is a reply to message #10781]

Sun, 19 May 2024 07:30

rcini
Messages: 64
Registered: October 2015
Location: Long Island, NY

Member

I started from scratch using the Backplane 8 201506 version and just replaced the power connector and made other minor changes to support ATX power. There were problems manually routing the RESET signal to a new 2x4 "front panel" connector -- it wouldn't let me do it. Very strange, but after some poking around it has to do with both extra slashes in the net names and locked tracks -- there were several other signals with the same problem, I expect an artifact of using KiCAD 6 rather than what was originally used. Once I undid that, it worked. Attached is a revised plot.

The board is about 0.1" too tall for the case so the top will only be able to float on-top (or just leave it off). I thought about shrinking the backplane, but it wouldn't matter since all of the ECB cards adhere to the standard. So, it's a less-than-perfect solution but could provide stability and partial enclosure.

Rich

Attachment: Screenshot 2024-05-19 at 9.50.21 PM.png
(Size: 380.38KB, Downloaded 87 times)

Rich Cini

[Updated on: Tue, 21 May 2024 05:54]

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Re: ECB enclosure ideas [message #10806 is a reply to message #10782]

Mon, 01 July 2024 07:47

rcini
Messages: 64
Registered: October 2015
Location: Long Island, NY

Member

I have not yet sent the modified backplane to manufacturing, opting instead to modify the design to use a spare backplane I had in stock. Here's the picture of the front of the setup. The ATX power board is on the right by the empty slot. The black strip on the bottom is a thin stick-on piece of neoprene to act as a way to prevent the boards from moving around a lot. The board stack is slightly taller than the case allows, so there's an opportunity to build a custom top out of acrylic or wood, maybe with some grooves to support the top of the board.

For those interested, it's an SBC-188 stack including my 4PIO, the CPU, 4MB memory, SD/Floppy, and 2S+1P cards.

/forum/index.php?t=getfile&id=3076&private=0

/forum/index.php?t=getfile&id=3076&private=0

Enjoy!
Rich

Attachment: IMG_4121.jpg
(Size: 2.36MB, Downloaded 212 times)

Rich Cini

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