[hpsdr] Pandora

[Jason Hitesman]

On 5/22/07, Eric Ellison <ecellison at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> Jason
>
> And all who have commented on Atlas and Case but who may not have been
> around last year when Atlas was designed.

I may be reading more into your reply than is meant to be there Eric,
but I'm afraid you may also be reading more into my comments than I
meant to imply :D

I didn't pay super close attention when Atlas designs were being
discussed, but I did remember that it was supposed to be designed to
fit into a PC case.

But one of the reasons I didn't pay a lot of attention was because
frankly I never really planned on putting mine into a PC case.  I have
some friends who are quite talented with sheet metal and one who owns
a water jet - so I've always kind of been planning on a custom case
for mine once it's all together and working.

It was just the excitement of seeing my Ozy and Atlas together...and a
pile of old computers I had been meaning to do something with that
spurred me to try and find a temporary home for my boards.

>From what I had payed attention to during the Atlas discussions I kind
of expected it to fit a little better.  I didn't expect the mounting
holes to line up....I did expect the cards to line up with the case
openings (and they do!) what caught me off guard was the height
issues.

The height issues wouldn't have even been a big deal...except that 3
of the 4 cases I had on hand have their standoffs formed right into
the base.  So suddenly it wasn't just a matter of shimming the atlas
with washers - it was a matter of having to cut bits of the original
case out to make room for the atlas to sit low enough that the cards
would line up.


I certainly did not mean to come across as complaining.  I just wanted
to share my findings with others who were looking at using PC cases so
they would know what to watch for when inspecting possible cases.  I
still have a few more cases stashed away to dig out and evaluate...and
I know that at least one of them doesn't have any built in standoffs
for me to have to work around  (but it's a full tower case and quite a
bit bigger than I want to use!)



> The number of slots is really a poor choice for a 'fixed' re-design, and is
> more preference.

Personally I like the six slot choice.  If anything I'd be in the more
slot camp...but it seems to me that could be solved by chaining
multiple atlas boards together if it became necessary.

Overall I'm very impressed with all of the design work on Atlas.  Even
if it's not as simple as I expected to mount in a PC case I still
think it's a solid design and that the spacing makes a lot of sense.
(Instead of having to fabricate all those openings in a custom case it
should be possible to scavenge the back of a stock case saving on
quite a bit of fabrication!)

> Perhaps Jason can post design files for each number of slots, it only takes
> 3 folks and no-touch board mfgr to make 3 at about $51 bux per to get them
> made in 10 days. Still pretty cheap!

Again I have no issue with the design choices on Atlas and am
completely satisfied with the choice of 6 slots.  I was just somewhat
surprised that it wasn't as "plug and play" into a PC case as I had
expected based on the design discussions that I did pay attention to.
So as suggested I'm sharing my findings with the list so that others
can benefit from them - my posts about atlas/pandora were by no means
meant as criticism (constructive or otherwise) but merely as
informative for those who do plan on using PC cases.

The other ideas (integrated processor, modular design) sound
great...but don't really scratch any itch for me, at least not yet!

I was just looking for feedback from others who've gone the PC case
route to see if anyone had found a case that was more suited to this
use than the ones I had available as none of them appear to be usable
without some serious metalworking.

----
Jason Hitesman
N8INJ

 1179881780.0