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Re: [Xylo-SDR] Questions - Enclosure - MB - Kicad



I say, forget inches, forget millimeters, let's measure everything in cubits.

Be glad you are not in the military and under fire, there indecision can be deadly.

The price sounds good, I assume not counting connectors.


At 12:12 PM 1/14/2006, you wrote:
Phil and Everyone

I have Googled till I gurgled. I have a change of plan to propose, regarding
enclosure, since there has been a lot of discussion on number of  buss
connector slots, board dimensions, descrete component mounting, like gps
satellite receiver subsystem board etc. There is no question in my mind that
EuroBus 3U design is the way to go, since there is a LOT of off the shelf
stuff for it, even power supplies.

I really could not find a 'stock' enclosure with enough height for
horizontally mounted boards, which really meet our requirement. Also Phil
N8VB wants to start design, so 'dropped back' and thought again about the
mount.

I got quotes from my local Rose+Bopla rep for Aluminum extrusions I posted
before.

http://www.rose-bopla.com/PMX/RSBPCatg.nsf/65680fe57e02219d85256bbc00506958/
e5046498ec7af42885256bdc00516cdc?OpenDocument


Minimum order is only $100, they can cut the extrusion for $2.00 a cut.
Other services are available.

The end plates unfortunately are prohibitively priced. 1 dust proof end
plate cost more than a  4x6x6 enclosure. However I feel that it will be a
cinch to make our own end plates, perhaps out of single or double sided
circuit board material or aluminum in a 4x6 configuration.

Proposal:

I propose that we go for the Rose-Bopla 4x6x(X) enclosures The length
dimension will allow mounting the motherboard on an aluminum backpanel with
standoffs with a little 'easment' for getting the MB perfectly aligned with
the slots in both the x and y dimension. Project boards would be vertically
mounted, sliding in from the front. If we have 4 motherboard slots, we have
approximately 3 inches for other slide in cards not buss connected, like
power supplies.

NOW! ????

We could go with (X) being 2+ inch giving us the "2X4" which is our board
design suggestion.

Obviously X can be any depth enclosure so project board size so we can
renegotiate the 2x4 standard.

Or we could make the enclosure a standard Eurocard depth of 6 inches and
mount the project card of any length up to 6" on an inexpensive standard 4x6
inch blank circuit board (About $2 for blank 4.x 6 cards).

The drawback to this suggestion is that we would then have to come off board
with any front panel mounted devices from the 4" by variable length project
board. Also the connectors would have to be bulkhead mounts. Project boards
would have to have patch cables to the front panel, which probably is not
pretty for stuff like USB, RF etc.

I therefore propose that we increase the proposed project card size from 2x4
to 4x4 which is a 'happy medium' which Phil suggests below. This also allows
for Phil - VK6APH BPF board, A Jupiter GPS receiver etc. For 'Dead Bug'
expeimenters like Bill - KD5TFD, he could use a 4x6 full length card and
have 2" sticking out the front for experimenting without a card extender. It
also allows us to get on with Motherboard design with a maximum vertical
dimension of 96 mm. (case height between lands). I propose the motherboard
height dimension be the the size of the 96 pin mating connector (3.7"). The
holes in the connector will mate with standoffs for rigidity.

I think a 4x6x4 enclosure would make a cute little radio!

Enclosure Cost without end panels on a 4x6x4+ case would be about:
11 dollars. Nice dustproof Endcover when everything is finally plugged in
(If ever) is 15 dollars. Gives us the flexibility to be an 'anything'
device.

WATSA?
Eric

-----Original Message-----
From: xylo-sdr-bounces@lists.ae5k.us [mailto:xylo-sdr-bounces@lists.ae5k.us]
On Behalf Of Philip Covington
Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2006 9:49 PM
To: Xylo-SDR Discussion
Subject: Re: [Xylo-SDR] Questions - Enclosure - MB - Kicad

Eric,

Yes, if you could come up with a simple drawing of the board positions
and how you want to fit it into a case it would help a lot.  Then we
can see whether we can arrange things within the limits of the
motherboard size of approx 4 x 4".  I checked tonight and it looks
like a 4 layer 4x4" PCB would be about $25/ea in a batch of 25 boards.

I would like to get this pinned down because I want to get started on
a LTC2208 2x4" format board.

As far as no active components on the motherboard:  I think we should
have a smt LED for each of the power buses on the motherboard.

73 de Phil N8VB

On 1/11/06, Eric Ellison <ecellison@comcast.net> wrote:
> Phil
>
> Spectacular! I advocate Kicad! If we could import the parts it is BETTER
> than Eagle. (smile).
>
> I'll try to get a 'picture' of the MB. I would like to keep the 2x4 design
> for the front mounted components and add 1 4x4 board to the rear to
> accommodate larger parts such as Phil's BPF board, and have the rear
mounted
> board have access to the buss, although not necessarily many of the
> connections. The rear facing board would have the power supply, antenna
> connections facing rearward.
>
> Eric
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: xylo-sdr-bounces@lists.ae5k.us
[mailto:xylo-sdr-bounces@lists.ae5k.us]
> On Behalf Of Philip Covington
> Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2006 7:14 PM
> To: Xylo-SDR Discussion
> Subject: Re: [Xylo-SDR] Questions - Enclosure - MB - Kicad
>
> On 1/11/06, Eric Ellison <ecellison@comcast.net> wrote:
>
> > Stupid question. Is it possible to mount one 96 pin staggered connector
on
> > the back of the Motherboard. My dyslexic mind can't figure it. Are all
the
> > traces on plated through holes in 2 planes.
>
> Don't know what you mean here.  Can you make a drawing of what you are
> proposing?
>
> > Kicad posted a new version in the last few days. Someone on the forum
> > contributed a parts designer. Drill stuff was apparently solved in a
> > December (or earlier) release. I'm back to Kicad, it REALLY IS an
elegant
> > program. There is an Oracad translator but didn't see if this was for
> > 'parts' or schematics or what. I didn't see an Eagle .lib translator,
but
> > that WOULD be great!
>
> There is.  It is called exp-kicad-lib.ulp
>
> http://www.philcovington.com/BAK/exp-kicad-lib.ulp
>
> You have to run it from inside Eagle as a user language program.  It
> will export the libraries in Kicad format.
>
> Also,  I am able to know compile Kicad on Windows (I could only
> successfully compile it under Linux before) so if anyone is interested
> I can tell you what I did to get the enviroment set up to compile it.
>
> 73 de Phil N8VB
>
> >
> >
> > Eric
> >
> >
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Cecil Bayona
KD5NWA
www.qrpradio.com

"I fail to see why doing the same thing over and over and getting the same results every time is insanity: I've almost proved it isn't; only a few more tests now and I'm sure results will differ this time ... "