Re: LONG floppy dr cable source/ CHEAP indu.back plane chassis?

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@y..., "dk1machine" <dk1machine@y...> wrote:

> -smile-.....-chuckle-
> Thanks John!
> JUST what I wanted to hear!
> After all, Centroid and Haas (and others) have their floppy drives
>in
> the operator pendant and the PC in the NEMA enclosure. If it works
>for
> them........
> I'll peek inside my buddies Haas & see what kind of cable they use.
>
> Some thoughts on "whimpy" PC hardware in the shop:
> As far as the MTBF of the floppy, don't believe most of what you
>hear
> about "industrial hardened" PC hardware BS. The "office" stuff
>seems
> quite tough! I've been pricing open wall mount chassis for a
>project
> and the prices are OUTrageous! I'm going to get a small tower
>chassis
> and see if I can make the backplane "passive" with a hacksaw and
> tinsnips. Wish there was a low cost passive backplane industrial
> chassis available for REASONABLE (<$150) cost. Then, the Single
>Board
> Computers will blow a hole in your wallet too! I want a mother
>board I
> can run to Staples and get on Sat. nite if I need one. In the NEMA
> box,(where the PC will live) a SMALL exhaust fan near the top of
>the
> NEMA enclosure (WITH filtered inlet near the bottom) is all that's
> needed to keep the temps down & dust out. Trick is, don't use too
>big
> a fan. Only put "enough" air thru the box. The more pulled thru,
>the
> more chance of dust entering. I see over capacity on cooling air in
> electronic enclosures (and much dust build up) all the time.
>
> dan k

Dan,
I'm in the process of building a new cabinet at the moment.
My original controller is a 1980's Posidata make and was about 3'
square and 5' high. This stood to one side of the machine with the
controls on the top half. When I changed over to Ahha some years ago
I kept the lower half with all the big transformers and stepper
driver cards, cut the top half off and stood in in the corner on
stilts with a tool cupboard below. The PC also lives in there and the
monitor and keyboard live in an enclosure on the side of the machine.
See http://homepage.ntlworld.com/machines/ahha.jpg
The controller is in the top left of the pic.
I'm now in the process of scrapping all this and using 4 Gecko 210
drives. I propose to mount the transformer and the Geckos in one wall
mounted enclosure and the PC in the other. Mainly because I have two
of these. I was just going to get the base of a desktop and cut the
front off and screw this directly to the enclosure backplane. As all
my monitor, keyboard cables are on extension cables I was just going
to route them out the side in a big umbilicle to the machine.

John S.