Box or Cover for CSS Black Box

[IndusGT]

I was wondering if any Black Box owners here had made their own cover or case for this device. I was thinking of something in clear plastic. Anyone have any ideas?

[Curt Vendel]

CSS made a plastic cover for the BB but it was a really bad casting and didn't fit well. Go to a local or online plastics dealer, buy some 1/4" arcylic sheets, a plastic cutter and make your own box for the BB...

 

 

 

word of caution ---

 

 

Use a plastic cleaner like Cinch or Fantastic and clean the plastic, it will remove the residual static charge that most plexi/acrylic sheets will carry. Then place your BB board into the case.

 

 

 

Curt

 

I was wondering if any Black Box owners here had made their own cover or case for this device. I was thinking of something in clear plastic. Anyone have any ideas?

[+Larry]

I was wondering if any Black Box owners here had made their own cover or case for this device. I was thinking of something in clear plastic. Anyone have any ideas?

 

Several years ago, I made a nice box out of wood -- 1/8" "hobby" plywood with 1/4" ends and front panels. Covered it with metal foil and sprayed it shiny black. Back was open, right end accepts a fan for cooling. Plastic could probably make a slightly nicer project, but mine looked at least as good as my original BB case from CSS, and for most folks, wood is **much** easier to work with.

 

How long have you had your BB?

 

-Larry

[+bf2k+]

 

...

 

How long have you had your BB?

 

-Larry

 

My first one was #13 back in 1985. I have owned 5 of them and I currently have 2 - 1 256k & 1 1M. I think I got both of these somewhere around 1990. One of them used to belong to Keith Ledbetter.

[Mathy]

Howdy bf2k+

 

Wow! You have a BlackBox with more then 64kB or RAM? Tell us more about it?

 

Greetings

 

Mathy (who's just kidding)

[+bf2k+]

Howdy bf2k+

 

Wow! You have a BlackBox with more then 64kB or RAM? Tell us more about it?

 

Greetings

 

Mathy (who's just kidding)

 

OOPS! My mistake! I thought he was talking about MIO!! Oh well... substitue MIO for BB in my post and all the rest is true!

 

Actually I do have a BB somewhere around here.

[IndusGT]

I have two Black Boxes with the Floppy Board. Spoke to Bob Puff at CSS last week who is now out of them. So far he has no intention of making another run. Hope that changes in the future. I'm going to make another thread about what I would like to see in a new interface. Anyway, the Black Box is a great device

[themrfreeze]

I have two Black Boxes with the Floppy Board. Spoke to Bob Puff at CSS last week who is now out of them. So far he has no intention of making another run. Hope that changes in the future. I'm going to make another thread about what I would like to see in a new interface. Anyway, the Black Box is a great device

 

I'm curious how many people out there would *really* buy a Black Box and/or Floppy Board if CSS were to offer them for sale again. I mean, would WITHOUT QUESTION buy them. The reason I ask is that I'm the guy who built most of CSS' products in the 1990s (Al will attest to the fact that I'm not kidding), and a quick check of my parts bin shows that there are enough PCBs for at least one more run of Floppy Boards. Dunno about Black Boxes though...I thought I had the PCBs for them around here someplace, but Bob must have any that remain.

 

In any case, if enough show interest in buying the stuff, then I'll talk to Bob about another production run. No guarantees though...Bob can be a little weird about the CSS stuff.

[ijor]

The reason I ask is that I'm the guy who built most of CSS' products in the 1990s (Al will attest to the fact that I'm not kidding), ...Bob can be a little weird about the CSS stuff.

 

A bit off-topic, but it would be great if Bob would "open" CSS products. No need to put them on the public domain, just open them one way or the other before they are lost for ever.

 

Most CSS products were already cloned or at least reverse-engineered enough. But, for example, I've never seen anything related to the Bit Writer. I understand he might be not very akin to open them, but how much money, if at all, can he make in those products?

[Bumzyman]

I'm curious how many people out there would *really* buy a Black Box and/or Floppy Board if CSS were to offer them for sale again. I mean, would WITHOUT QUESTION buy them. The reason I ask is that I'm the guy who built most of CSS' products in the 1990s (Al will attest to the fact that I'm not kidding), and a quick check of my parts bin shows that there are enough PCBs for at least one more run of Floppy Boards. Dunno about Black Boxes though...I thought I had the PCBs for them around here someplace, but Bob must have any that remain.

 

I bought all of the Black Boxes Bob had left last fall. I would buy at least three more if they were availble.

Edited April 14, 2007 by Bumzyman

[Bumzyman]

A bit off-topic, but it would be great if Bob would "open" CSS products. No need to put them on the public domain, just open them one way or the other before they are lost for ever.

Most CSS products were already cloned or at least reverse-engineered enough. But, for example, I've never seen anything related to the Bit Writer. I understand he might be not very akin to open them, but how much money, if at all, can he make in those products?

 

Bob just recently sold all of his Multiplexer stock to Steve Carden and Steve is producing them for the masses. I bought 15 of them last fall for an 8 node BBS project that I am working on. I think Bob is open to the idea of keeping the CSS products alive. I must have at least one of each product that CSS put out except for the EPROM programmer.

[themrfreeze]

 

Bob just recently sold all of his Multiplexer stock to Steve Carden and Steve is producing them for the masses. I bought 15 of them last fall for an 8 node BBS project that I am working on. I think Bob is open to the idea of keeping the CSS products alive. I must have at least one of each product that CSS put out except for the EPROM programmer.

 

You have any Quintopuses? I loved building those....I could knock out dozens in a day.

 

I honestly don't know how much interest (if any) Bob has in producing more CSS stuff. He seemed all gung-ho for me to build another batch of Floppy Boards about a year ago, so I inventoried all of the parts I had and told him what was still needed. Never heard back from him after that. Many months later, out of the blue he asked me to build some Multiplexers for him. I kinda got on his case about him never getting back to me about the Floppy Boards, and after giving me what I'd consider a pretty lame excuse as to why he didn't respond, I passed on the doing the Multiplexers. I was remodeling my house around that time, so it's not like I didn't have plenty to do already. I'm guessing it was after this that Bob sold off the Multiplexers.

 

In any case, we'll see how much interest there is, and if there's enough I'll ask Bob about it. I'm guessing that if he's out of Black Box PCBs, there won't be any more Black Boxes....the PCBs are really expensive, and at this point I don't see Bob putting up the cash to have more made. I still have 31 PCBs for the Floppy Board though, although I seem to recall that I can only finish about 6 with the parts I have on hand.

[+bf2k+]

I'm curious how many people out there would *really* buy a Black Box and/or Floppy Board if CSS were to offer them for sale again. I mean, would WITHOUT QUESTION buy them. The reason I ask is that I'm the guy who built most of CSS' products in the 1990s (Al will attest to the fact that I'm not kidding), and a quick check of my parts bin shows that there are enough PCBs for at least one more run of Floppy Boards. Dunno about Black Boxes though...I thought I had the PCBs for them around here someplace, but Bob must have any that remain.

 

I bought all of the Black Boxes Bob had left last fall. I would buy at least three more if they were availble.

 

I'd buy one if the price wasn't too high.