c0nsumer Posted February 6, 2009 Author Share Posted February 6, 2009 (edited) You do really nice work! Great project pics on your site. Excellent stuff! Thank you. I'm probably going to drop the curvey traces and teardrops and such for a number of reasons. That said, I can't wait to get the first one built. Now I'm going to have to recondition my 800XL... the keyboard is currently full of years of grime from me growing and eating over it. I'm hoping March for the group order. Edited February 6, 2009 by c0nsumer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c0nsumer Posted February 10, 2009 Author Share Posted February 10, 2009 The cases arrive today, and I think they'll work well. Some slight tweaks to the PCB are still needed to ensure that everything works as nicely with the front and rear panels, but it's coming along nicely. That photo should also give you all a good idea of what size it'll be. I think it's nicely small, but not too small; about the size of a 3.25" floppy drive. More photos from today where I play with a PCB mockup, the enclosure, and a few parts are available here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari8guy Posted February 10, 2009 Share Posted February 10, 2009 The cases arrive today, and I think they'll work well. Some slight tweaks to the PCB are still needed to ensure that everything works as nicely with the front and rear panels, but it's coming along nicely. That photo should also give you all a good idea of what size it'll be. I think it's nicely small, but not too small; about the size of a 3.25" floppy drive. More photos from today where I play with a PCB mockup, the enclosure, and a few parts are available here. That looks great, Put me down for one...extra shipping to Canada. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c0nsumer Posted February 10, 2009 Author Share Posted February 10, 2009 That looks great, Put me down for one...extra shipping to Canada. Thank you. Thanks for the interest, as well. Just so you know, beyond making the standard postings for such things, when I'm ready to handle the orders for the PCBs I'll PM everyone who has replied to this thread so that we can sort out payment things and such. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roydea6 Posted February 10, 2009 Share Posted February 10, 2009 I would like to have one also, now that it is a GO project. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Oberhäuser Posted February 10, 2009 Share Posted February 10, 2009 That said, if I'm able to keep with the $20 price point for the PCB and parts should add another $30 or so (excluding the case), the price for a completed board will be about $50 or so. I'd definitely go for a populated unit if possible. I would take two populated units, I would kill myself with a soldering iron:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Philsan Posted February 10, 2009 Share Posted February 10, 2009 That said, if I'm able to keep with the $20 price point for the PCB and parts should add another $30 or so (excluding the case), the price for a completed board will be about $50 or so. I'd definitely go for a populated unit if possible. I would take two populated units, I would kill myself with a soldering iron:) I too would like to buy one complete unit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bf2k+ Posted February 10, 2009 Share Posted February 10, 2009 I too would like to buy one complete unit. Me also.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c0nsumer Posted February 10, 2009 Author Share Posted February 10, 2009 That said, if I'm able to keep with the $20 price point for the PCB and parts should add another $30 or so (excluding the case), the price for a completed board will be about $50 or so. I'd definitely go for a populated unit if possible. I would take two populated units, I would kill myself with a soldering iron:) Hey there... I don't currently have plans to sell populated units. Just for reference, that mention of $50 which you quoted was an off the top of my head estimate as to what it would cost one to assemble a populated SDrive NUXX PCB, presuming I'm able to keep the PCB price to $20/ea. If populated boards and/or assembled units do become available, there would obviously be an additional premium on top of this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bcombee Posted February 10, 2009 Share Posted February 10, 2009 Hey there... I don't currently have plans to sell populated units. Just for reference, that mention of $50 which you quoted was an off the top of my head estimate as to what it would cost one to assemble a populated SDrive NUXX PCB, presuming I'm able to keep the PCB price to $20/ea. If populated boards and/or assembled units do become available, there would obviously be an additional premium on top of this. I was wondering about the cost of the Front Panel Express pieces. I looked on their site, and those seemed fairly expensive. Are there discounts for multiple panels; if so, would you consider bundling those with your PCB? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c0nsumer Posted February 10, 2009 Author Share Posted February 10, 2009 (edited) I was wondering about the cost of the Front Panel Express pieces. I looked on their site, and those seemed fairly expensive. Are there discounts for multiple panels; if so, would you consider bundling those with your PCB? Actually, yes, I'm considering providing front/rear panel sets as an option. The discount from FPE isn't that great in quantity, but it is there. The current design that I'm working on comes out to something like $40/panel (that is, each end). While I've got the front panels mostly mocked up, I won't be settling on a design until I've got the PCBs here. I'm also looking at some other options for panels, but as you can probably imagine, small quantity custom metal panels aren't cheap to begin with. I'm doing what I can on panels, though... I do think that it'd be a great thing if I could provide PCB and panel sets. Edited February 10, 2009 by c0nsumer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c0nsumer Posted February 10, 2009 Author Share Posted February 10, 2009 (edited) Well, that's that. The prototype run of 10 SDrive NUXX v1.0 PCBs have been ordered. The final board size is 123mm x 100mm, in order to best fit in the Hammond 1455L1201 enclosure. A 300dpi export of the PCB (without groundplanes) is here and the schematic, in PDF, is here: sdrive_nuxx_schematic_v1.0.pdf Work in progress documentation, including the BOM, part numbers, etc is here: SDrive NUXX. Of course, know that nothing on that page is considered final yet. With the 10-day turn on the boards I expect to receive them sometime just before the end of the month. In the mean time I'll be working on finishing up the front and rear panels, documentation, and non-electronics stuff that I've been neglecting for the last week and a half. Edited February 10, 2009 by c0nsumer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Sauron Posted February 10, 2009 Share Posted February 10, 2009 That looks super cool! Count me in for a populated unit as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted February 11, 2009 Share Posted February 11, 2009 Very nice! Thanks for taking the time to consider an enclosure. So many great projects have this flaw. Stephen Anderson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bcombee Posted February 11, 2009 Share Posted February 11, 2009 At $40 per panel, I'd probably be more interested in just going without or doing one myself using plastic with a local laser cutter. Does the Front Panel Express software export in any formats that can be reused by other programs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c0nsumer Posted February 11, 2009 Author Share Posted February 11, 2009 Very nice! Thanks for taking the time to consider an enclosure. So many great projects have this flaw. Stephen Anderson The enclosure was one of the main focuses of this project. As you can see, the front edge of the board is pretty crowded. I had hoped to find a wider (front panel) and shallower enclosure, but didn't have much luck. This was about the best I could do, despite wasting a bit of space on the PCB. Lately I've personally become particularly critical of DIY projects which are just a board without an enclosure. I believe that there is a place for such a product, particularly for experimental purposes or where the board is being embedded in another device, but when making something that functions stand-alone an enclosure is one of the finishing touches that really should be there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c0nsumer Posted February 11, 2009 Author Share Posted February 11, 2009 At $40 per panel, I'd probably be more interested in just going without or doing one myself using plastic with a local laser cutter. Does the Front Panel Express software export in any formats that can be reused by other programs? I understand, that price does seem a bit high, but it's just what Front Panel Express costs. That said, I'm attempting to find other panel sources besides FPE. If one of those works out I'll probably have to purchase the panels in quantity, and thus I'd offer the panels as an option with the PCB. I only intend to go this route if these other options work out to be markedly cheaper and/or better than FPE. Oh, and exports? Nope. Nothing. Part of the Front Panel Designer license agreement (FPE's software) requires you to make no effort to get the data into another format. If/when I make the files available you could always just use the object inspector in FPD to determine drills / sizes / offsets / etc for translation to another package. One thing to note, if you are going to go the DIY route for end panels, this PCB 123mm long. This is because the enclosure is 120mm, and the trim ring / bezel pieces which hold the end panels add another 1.5mm. Thus, a 123mm PCB will sit flush against the panels inserted in the trim rings. The plastic end cap variant of the enclosure doesn't include this additional gap. Therefore, if you are buying an enclosure with the intention of making your own end panels, I suggest getting the one with the metal panels and using the bezels / trim rings to hold your end panels. I imagine that you could either work the metal end panels which come with the enclosure or make new plastic ones. A panel thickness of 1.5mm is suggested as it will conform to both the case's design and the positioning of the parts on the PCB. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted February 11, 2009 Share Posted February 11, 2009 question... this will be a cart, right? usable for XL & XE models? could replace my Sio2USB device... it seems more handy... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NuY Posted February 11, 2009 Share Posted February 11, 2009 To ask a noobish question...what does SDrive do that SIO2SD doesn't; or what does it do differently? And if I have an SIO2SD, would I benefit from having an SDrive instead? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurtm Posted February 11, 2009 Share Posted February 11, 2009 question... this will be a cart, right? usable for XL & XE models? could replace my Sio2USB device... it seems more handy... It's an SIO device. So it should work for all machines (barring memory/DOS issues. Like a 16k 400/600xl). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c0nsumer Posted February 11, 2009 Author Share Posted February 11, 2009 question... this will be a cart, right? usable for XL & XE models? could replace my Sio2USB device... it seems more handy... No, this is not a cart. In the final design it'll be a sealed box with an SIO connector on the back, LEDs/pushbuttons/SD slot on the front. What I'll be offering for sale is blank PCBs and possibly front and rear enclosure panels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c0nsumer Posted February 11, 2009 Author Share Posted February 11, 2009 To ask a noobish question...what does SDrive do that SIO2SD doesn't; or what does it do differently? And if I have an SIO2SD, would I benefit from having an SDrive instead? If this is the device you are talking about, the differences appear to be the lack of LCD, the case, the SIO / DB15 connector footprint, the PCB designed to fit in an off the shelf case, the on-board AVR programmer, and (in my opinion) the generally nicer design. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Defender II Posted February 11, 2009 Share Posted February 11, 2009 Any posibility you might switch to a layout that will fit into a XM301 modem case? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vectorman0 Posted February 11, 2009 Share Posted February 11, 2009 This looks great. For $20 each, I will definitely take a couple boards. (maybe a couple more to build for people here since there seems to be a large demand for populated units). However at $80 total for front and rear panels, I am not sure if I would want any. Maybe I would take one set at that price. With the enclosure and front/rear end panels, the total cost is about $150, correct? I guess that may be part of the reason projects are so often done without an enclosure. Also on a (sort of) unrelated note, are you a big fan of Underworld? I know I am. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c0nsumer Posted February 11, 2009 Author Share Posted February 11, 2009 Any posibility you might switch to a layout that will fit into a XM301 modem case? No. However, upon completion of the SDrive NUXX project specifically I will be releasing the PCB CAD files, so you're free to do so. However, you will need an appropriate CadSoft EAGLE license for doing that layout. That said, the XM301 modem case will be a bit problematic because it doesn't have the button/tactile switch, LED, and SD holes in it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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