Re: modifiable backplane with sockets?

Christopher Howard <christopher@librehacker.com> wrote:

For a project, I was wanting to make some small electronic cards that slide
into sockets on a backplane, and then wire them together on the
backplane. I want the freedom to redo the wiring on the backplane
without having to reprint a new backplane. Do I have to find some old
wire-wrapped backplane from the 1970s, or is there some kind of modern
— and ideally inexpensive — approach to this sort of thing? Maybe I just
need the right kind of sockets mounted on a normal PCB, and then wire
wrap on the back side of those...?
 
I was thinking like 10 or so pins per card, though maybe I could use
quad chips instead for my modules and go with something like 40 pins.
 
It is not a data bus — purely analog — so I'm not looking for some kind
of data bus design.
 

Backplane systems are pretty retro at this point, apart from a few things
like VXI.

 The last one I designed was around 1994, and that was a proof-of-concept
prototype.

The cost, size, unreliability, and general clunkiness of backplane systems
should be considered.  I still build a lot of analog protos, but offshore
PCBAs are pretty cheap, so I only hand-wire them when I’m in a hurry.

What are you building?

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

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Dr Philip C D Hobbs  Principal Consultant  ElectroOptical Innovations LLC /
Hobbs ElectroOptics  Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics