VOGONS


First post, by keenerb

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I can't recall ever having been shocked by touching a wooden material, and wooden combs are used to eliminate static when combing hair.

I picked out a nice, dry untreated 2x6 board and cut a series of slots across it with a 2mm thick saw blade as a temporary card storage rack.

Any educated opinions on whether this is a sane way of holding ISA cards between projects?

Any semi-educated or outright un-educated opinions?

I am going to cut some 30-degree angled slots in another board and see if it would work wall-mounted.

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Reply 1 of 20, by cyclone3d

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Should be just fine. Wood is not a conductor of electricity nor will it pick up a static charge.

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Reply 4 of 20, by feipoa

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That uses quite a bit of real-estate in a room. If you make multiple levels upwards, I can see the space saving advantage. If you make it into a shelf unit and have several levels. That is probably what you are thinking with the wall-mounting. Personally, I need to keep all this stuff neatly tucked away in the closet and a dresser or the wife will be less than pleased. Also, my kids will go nuts with an open system like that. All those expansion cards would be all over the floor in a matter of 10 seconds.

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Reply 5 of 20, by Malvineous

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I've also found that storing the cards in opposite directions (so every second card has the slot bracket facing the other way) allows you to fit twice as many cards into the same space. But of course my priority is fitting all the cards into the available space, and not about showing them off!

I also find that open displays end up collecting a lot of dust which requires cleaning, whereas having the cards in a closed container keeps the dust off them so they're ready to go when I next want to use them.

Reply 8 of 20, by beastlike

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I love the design. I think you'd be fine as far as static, but in my case, I'd be worried about knocking into the cards with something by accident. I wouldn't want them to snap or put excess pressure on them by accidentally hitting one (or several) of them with the corner of a computer I'm clumsily carrying into the room!

That said if I could enclose something like that in a glass or plexi case for dust and the aforementioned tragic accident, I'd be totally into that. Right now I'm keeping a bunch of them in a DIY cardboard box thing I made and something like this would be way more classy. Another cool feature in v2.0 would be space between them so you can fit labels.

Reply 9 of 20, by chinny22

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Not a bad idea, I'd probably store them upside down just to be double sure the connecter isn't damaged. and some kind of cover just to limit the dust and protect against accidents.
I have the same problems as feipoa (family) so hidden in a deep draw piled ontop of each other in anti static bags is still my method of storage.

Reply 10 of 20, by keenerb

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chinny22 wrote:

Not a bad idea, I'd probably store them upside down just to be double sure the connecter isn't damaged. and some kind of cover just to limit the dust and protect against accidents.
I have the same problems as feipoa (family) so hidden in a deep draw piled ontop of each other in anti static bags is still my method of storage.

These are on a shelf that's about 6ft off the ground, so I"m not too worried about anyone hittign them.

I've got a new setup I'll put pictures of up when I get a chance. It's a two level offset design, with deeper storage (including supports) on bottom shelf for longer cards. I'm extremely pleased with it. I am looking into a good way to keep them from getting dusty

I feel like I'm spending way too much time on what was supposed to be a quick way to keep a few ISA cards handy, but that's pretty much how everything goes on Vogons, isn't it?

Reply 11 of 20, by Tetrium

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I think Meljor used a similar way to store his cards. He might have some additional tips for you perhaps?
I store them differently, but then again I alloted a lot more room for parts storage.

For parts I use a lot (often my standard testing parts like PCI graphics card and some memory modules), these are in a separate box on the desk.

Storing ISA cards I think does require a bit of care, since they can be quite long and one wouldn't want flexing resulting in cold solder joints or other related intermittent problems.

Malvineous wrote:

I've also found that storing the cards in opposite directions (so every second card has the slot bracket facing the other way) allows you to fit twice as many cards into the same space. But of course my priority is fitting all the cards into the available space, and not about showing them off!

I also find that open displays end up collecting a lot of dust which requires cleaning, whereas having the cards in a closed container keeps the dust off them so they're ready to go when I next want to use them.

When storing cards which are touching each other, please be wary of them not scratching against each other as some parts may get ripped out or bend when trying to get a card out quick. Theres always the danger of a moment of slight impatience, which may end up with you ending up with a useful card less in about 5 seconds time 😜

The dust is a main reason for me to store everything covered up. Or at least in an antistatic bag. If I (for whatever reason) leave parts on the desk or somewhere else uncovered, I made a habit of laying those down upside down, so the dust collects on the backside of the PCB and not within ISA/PCI/AGP slots etc. This is also better as I sometimes forget what I was doing or stop while in the middle of a project and then find the parts 3 months later 😊

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Reply 14 of 20, by meljor

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I have been storing my agp, pci , isa and vlb cards for a couple of years exactly the same way, never had a problem.

Easy to grab one so great for testing, and saves space.

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Reply 15 of 20, by beastlike

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Also one more thing, not to obsess too much! But where I live wood swells to the extreme in the winters and summers; the cuts could theoretically widen enough to loosen the cards in the winters, and squish the cards in the summers. Again not trying to be a ney-sayer at all I really like the design!

Reply 16 of 20, by meljor

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beastlike wrote:

Also one more thing, not to obsess too much! But where I live wood swells to the extreme in the winters and summers; the cuts could theoretically widen enough to loosen the cards in the winters, and squish the cards in the summers. Again not trying to be a ney-sayer at all I really like the design!

I think that happens much more outside in the different weather conditions? With my blocks i never noticed anything, no problems at all.
Dust can be the only (small) problem, but i think components gather much more dust inside a computer (and they do not get damaged collecting a bit of dust on a shelf).

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Reply 17 of 20, by keenerb

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What I ended up settling with. It's aesthetically pleasing in my opinion. Room for 60 cards or so and a dozen motherboards.

I'm replacing the white plastic shelves with a support block and use the middle section for my longer stuff like AWE32, Intel Aboveboards, and a few full-length single board computers.

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Reply 18 of 20, by Tetrium

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meljor wrote:
beastlike wrote:

Also one more thing, not to obsess too much! But where I live wood swells to the extreme in the winters and summers; the cuts could theoretically widen enough to loosen the cards in the winters, and squish the cards in the summers. Again not trying to be a ney-sayer at all I really like the design!

I think that happens much more outside in the different weather conditions? With my blocks i never noticed anything, no problems at all.
Dust can be the only (small) problem, but i think components gather much more dust inside a computer (and they do not get damaged collecting a bit of dust on a shelf).

Here in The Netherlands the climate changes are very mild compared to many other countries.
I think the insides do get affected by things like humidity. I'm also thinking about getting these ESDes when touching stuff during winters 😵

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Reply 19 of 20, by keenerb

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I picked up a wooden crate at a local Home Depot to do something for longer cards. I used a 2x4 block with a 2mm cut, and ran a dowel across the back to support the rear of the cards.

You can see some small nails I placed between each slot, to use to secure the cards with possibly rubber bands.

Not at all sure if this is really superior to "rubbermaid container full of antistatic bags" but I do feel like the cards themselves will avoid any incidental damage from knocking against each other.

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