Path: news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: Don Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid>
Newsgroups: sci.electronics.design
Subject: Re: modifiable backplane with sockets?
Date: Fri, 30 May 2025 12:46:50 -0700
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In-Reply-To: <87v7pi10jm.fsf@librehacker.com>

On 5/30/2025 10:16 AM, Christopher Howard wrote:
>> I'm likening your project to the modules being the sum/gain/integrate/etc
>> functions implemented in your "modules" with the "tapered pin interconnects"
>> being your "backplane".  Is this approximately true?  I.e., once you've
>> designed the individual modules, they'll be static (likely replicated)
>> with the real changes happening in the backplane wiring?
>>
> 
> I think the one part you are not understanding is the purpose of the
> patch panel. So, it would be like so:
> 
> - Fixed analog component modules — integrators, multipliers, and such
>    like — connect to the back plane. These modules are normally not
>    changed out except for repair, testing, and expansion.

They "plug in" to the backplane.

> - Cables from the patch panel(s) connect to the backplane. Wiring on the
>    backplane connects these cables to the component modules. This wiring
>    is not normally changed unless adding new patch panels or some
>    fundamental redesign of a patch panel port.

So, all these are doing is acting as convenience functions; giving
you access to the backplane without having to directly wire ON the
backplane.

> - The patch panels(s) have a bunch banana jacks allowing me to quickly
>    interconnect the inputs and outputs of the various analog components.
>    These connections are frequently changed — every time I set up a new
>    simulation.

OK.  I was assuming the backplane was acting as your patch panel,
hence needing reasonably robust means of reusing connection points.

> This is how it works with my current analog computer I built, except
> that there is no backplane. Rather, the wires from the patch panel
> cables connect directly to terminal blocks on the analog component
> modules.

So, the backplane is just a packaging convenience?