Re: modifiable backplane with sockets?

On Tue, 27 May 2025 14:51:16 -0800, 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.

Here's a box with boards that plug into a backplane.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/43dl9eoja8gr0j0wqox56/P940_FA_2.jpg?rlkey=n3s4ycq3cpnxwx7d6l8jbxm50&raw=1

The connectors are 32-pin DINs. They come in all sorts of sizes and
configurations and some have wrappable tails.

I remember wire-wrap. It was awful for digital busses but might be OK
for the analog thing you are doing.

You could do a PCB for the bus, to hold things together and do the
power and grounds, and let the connector tails poke up for wrapping.

That bus above has 10 grounds and 7 pins of +48V per module, from that
kilowatt power supply.