Hi Eric, Phil et al,
Done deal as far as I'm concerned. Just needa board on standard PCI board spacings, hopefully using the standard drill holes in the bottom of the ATX standard cases to mount the board (not essential, but quick). Mother board also needs an ATX 20 pin connector. (I think I found a source of pcb mount... NOT your common connector) I just keep thinking about all those standard 4 pin molex thingies floating around in the enclosure to power Xtal ovens front panels, and other neat stuff! Also now the board designers can put 'non-real-world' connectors like SMB on another 2 surfaces of the board.! Good Bye Rose+Bopla!
Looking good, I think we are on track! The Aria case allows for a lot of freedom and provides enough room for expansion etc. We have plenty of options with that case.
Eric, the newer ATX v2.0 power supply standard is using a 24 pin connector. Older pre-v2.0 ATX PS use a 20 pin connector, but it can be plugged into the 24 pin, flush up on one side. Providing a 24 pin PS connector would give us backward compatibility for all ATX PS's.
Another suggestion regarding the boards, it would be best to construct analog input circuits and certain RF modules as Daughterboards, in such a way that they can be 100% shielded and plugged into IDC connectors on the boards with the bus and digital interface etc.
That would make those boards 'thicker' than any digital only board, so we need wider spacing of the backplane connectors.
There's a lot of good inputs and the reflector is getting very busy. The positive thing is that we are looking at all avenues before we are locking ourselves in. That way the $$ will also be kept at an acceptable level.
Good work from all, keep it coming! 73, Helmut VK4STR