well, trying to make the most out of ordering from JLC I made a little board for those Dallas/odin RTC modules. I did finally get a socket 7 motherboard after all.

I know that Necroware made a replacement that uses a surface mount chip to completely replace the board but in my part of the world anyway, I find that the full dip packages are noticeably cheaper than the surface mount variants.
So I made this with the intention that the user can stick the PCB to the top of the dip and solder bent up legs of the dip to the board. Also included are test pads for the usual fix where you drill a hole in the side of the old RTC, I think sticking the board to the top and running wires will look cleaner. You can also sand down the stop of the old RTC if the added height is an issue.

Should make a new thread for it so it searches better

Sphere478 wrote on 2022-05-23, 20:18:

Should make a new thread for it so it searches better

Since I don't really plan to release the files, I didn't bother with a new thread. Should I? I dislike dealing with github so I don't upload there unless it's something useful or has some purpose.
It was just a note really.

I done some tinkering with it to get so hopefully they are made right. KiKit is new to me and so is panelizing in general. So I spent most of the time making this just looking at specs on JLC and KiKits github page.
JLC seem to want the v-cut lines on the edge cuts layer, so that's messing with the kicad 3d preview a bit.

-Lime

Eh, a project like that isn’t hard to replicate IMHO may as well share it.

Personally I adopt the mindset that everything digital should be free, which is why I open source my projects. Also, if you don’t, someone will just copy it and open source theirs, 🤣.

It’s your project though and we respect whatever choice you make with it. 😀

I don't mind opening sourcing simple things or quick things. So long as they are useful.

Honestly if I hadn't open sourced the usb-2-232 already I'd question whether or not to.

The original idea was so much simpler than what I have currently, so at that time it was never a question of should I or not. But it's up and I'll leave it up.

At the very least the USB-2-232-KBD will have a non-commercial licence.
People can make their own or for a group of friends, that's fine, but with the effort I put in, I dont like the idea of seeing it up on a random ebay store.

Also on the topic of the keyboard, today i found out that male to male PS2 cables are a lot more common than i thought they would be. I thought they would be a unicorn sold by some AliExpress seller with a name like shop37462837463.
So the suggestion of adding the PS2 footprint is a lot more useful than i guessed it would be.

Also, if anyone has a suggestion for another little pcb I can order from JLC or even make in kicad, let me know.

Surely there's something useful out there i need found.

CalamityLime wrote on 2022-05-24, 02:00:

I don't mind opening sourcing simple things or quick things. So long as they are useful. […]
Show full quote

I don't mind opening sourcing simple things or quick things. So long as they are useful.

Honestly if I hadn't open sourced the usb-2-232 already I'd question whether or not to.

The original idea was so much simpler than what I have currently, so at that time it was never a question of should I or not. But it's up and I'll leave it up.

At the very least the USB-2-232-KBD will have a non-commercial licence.
People can make their own or for a group of friends, that's fine, but with the effort I put in, I dont like the idea of seeing it up on a random ebay store.

Also on the topic of the keyboard, today i found out that male to male PS2 cables are a lot more common than i thought they would be. I thought they would be a unicorn sold by some AliExpress seller with a name like shop37462837463.
So the suggestion of adding the PS2 footprint is a lot more useful than i guessed it would be.

Also, if anyone has a suggestion for another little pcb I can order from JLC or even make in kicad, let me know.

Surely there's something useful out there i need found.

Talk to me about that bulk pcb pic. Do you just add edge cuts to that?

I can understand how it could be frustrating to see your work being sold, but I suppose in a way they are still working for what they make, it’s just you helped with the design. They are investing, ordering, assembling, stocking, advertising. It’s not a free ride.

Anyway. I suppose I’d be happy in a way that it was contributing to the hobby.

I just had an idea of how you could make this or something else into a pc card completely in pcb.

Sloted plated holes and plated edges that slot into those holes to make angles you could make a rear I/O braket and card that soldered together and a universal blank slot tab that fit in 8 bit or pci depending on which holes you soldered into.

I can draw a pic if you need

Edit:

https://electrodacus.com/

Have you seen this?

I really like the idea of totally construction using pcb. It’s handy.

Hello

The panelled PCB was generated with kikit.
Score lines are added to the edge cuts layer which JLC said they want.
They have a page somewhere saying to use the edge cuts layer and i found someone else on a forum who used the default user comments layer and jlc didn't add the vcuts.

Ah yeah, there is work involved in making and selling boards. And i wouldnt have any issue with someone selling a few they made because they wanted one. I'd take issue with someone trying to sell a lot of them and not at least asking me. Since i know that if they put on an old firmware or something went wrong, people are unlikely to go the seller they are likely to go to the GitHub and wonder why something isn't working.

Then again if someone went off to make an entire ebay stored based off of the da1286 hat, I wouldn't really care, since that was just a quick thing to make.

And you're surggesting that i make expansion slot covers out of pcb?
I have seen front plates made out of PCB before but i can't say I've seen an expansion cover made out of it.
Hmmm, I'll have a look into that, could be a fun way to make use of mouse bites.

Have to run off somewhere now for the minute, see ye again soon.

-Lime

?

animated Gif,
Pads didn't show up on it but it's just to show the shape so far.

You could probably make more of it solderable at the corners. Plated edges are in order I’d say. but yes, exactly perfect!

People could use these for missing brackets!

Add some braces to the side and a few holes for for the ports and I have a few cards that could benefit from this as a made or order bracket replacement.

Personally I would think that braces on the side would be too small to really get squared up right.

The PCB would have to be made at 1.2 mm thickness, expansion slot covers are usually around 1 - 1.3mm thick from what I've measured.

I've printed replacement brackets in the past and they work decently well. A big issue is treading for screws. Look at the expansion slot mount I made for the USB-2-232 for example, I had to work quite hard to avoid screwing into a thin spot while keeping the screw out of the way.

How big is the hole in the case?

Sphere478 wrote on 2022-05-24, 19:41:

How big is the hole in the case?

How big is the cover you mean?
well it is 18.4 mm wide and about 120mm long.

I've found that the cut out in the PC case varies from case to case. Some will take a vertical USB connector and some won't for example. The cover itself is generally a consistent size as far as I've seen.

No the little slit at the bottom and distance between mobo and rear of case. That’s the only part that matters

OH.
I believe the spec for that hole is 1.27mm but I've found that it can be much larger and might tighter then that.
I've found that you don't really want to go past 1.5mm.

Metal plates have an advantage where they can have folds in them so despite the metal being thing, they can be decently strong.

aye so I edited the pci slot cover a bit.

To show how I imagine the pieces being soldered together I exported the PCB model's and imported them into fusion. I added the pads roughly where they are on the PCB since the export doesn't include them.
My thinking is that the use lays down the large piece flat and holds the smaller one with tweezers while plopping a ball of solder onto the pads.

I attached the kicad files to the post. I'm not sure what else to do with them.

-Lime

Don’t you think the edge plating would improve the strength a lot?

You could probably flow all of this with a hot air gun

bar of square copper or brass laid against inside of corner where pads are and soldered is stronger than solder alone. Be delicate as pads themselves are not that strong, unless you specify through holes plated about 6 or 9 holes for each pad will increase the strength some.

Cheers,

For decent strength I'd think having a hole in the small part that the bigger part slots into would give good stength, then all you have to do is stick them together just enough to go into the case.

But that would eat into space that any card would expect to be free.

Doesn't edge plating cost a lot to get done though? Castellations cost a lot for example.

I think working out how it would actually go together with the tools i have might be getting in the way a bit.

I think I'll make an edit where the small bit wraps around the large bit and we'll see how it looks. I'll have to double check machining tolances, they'll drill a hole 1.2 but will they drill a channel like that?