Experimenter Internal Single Slot Backplane

[Addison Burck]

I recently acquired the new Experimenter 2.5.2 and was working with the LED expansion card. The fact that the entire five‑slot expansion backplane had to hang out the back was driving me nuts, so I designed a PCB that lets a single expansion card sit inside the plexiglass of the new aluminum Experimenter case. This gives a clean look with nothing hanging out the back.

It’s been a couple of years since I’ve had a PCB fabricated, and not until after finishing the design have I discovered recent political events have made shipping costs for a tiny order prohibitively expensive. The design is therefore UNTESTED so use at your own risk, but I wanted to share it in case anyone else finds it useful. If anyone in the U.S. ends up having the PCBs fabricated and would like to send one my way, please PM me.

You can access the project here:
https://oshwlab.com/petted4174/test-backplane-3

It uses all the same parts as the stock backplane but for easy reference here are the two headers you’ll need

    SBH11‑PBPC‑D13‑RA‑BK  
    SFH11‑PBPC‑D13‑ST‑BK

[Chris Davis]

That's very cool, I'll give it a try.  I don't know where your pricing your PC boards, but you can have five of these made at JLCPCB for eight bucks including shipping.

[Addison Burck]

JLCPCB is where I priced them but the cheap shipping (global standard direct) option says tariffs are not paid and due at delivery. So it seemed DHL/Fedex where the only options. 
Have you had success receiving boards JLCPCB using global standard direct and not dealing with any tariff nonsense? 

[Chris Davis]

No tariffs are charges when you use global direct shipping.  It's handed off to USPS.  It takes about 2 weeks.

[Addison Burck]

Just wanted to give a quick update. Thanks to the tip above about PCB fabrication, I had the boards made and they turned out great. It’s a nice look having a single package with everything self‑contained.

There was a minor spacing issue with the transistor, and the drilled mounting holes were off by about 2 mm, but those holes are unnecessary and made assembly more difficult.

I’ve updated the project to version 1.1, correcting the transistor spacing and removing the mounting holes, so anyone who wants to use it in the future can do so.

[Chris Davis]

You probably don't need the voltage regulator and capacitors.  Set the jumper to "Arduino" and let the voltage regulator built into the Arduino provide power for the single expansion card.  Great work, I'll have to give this a try.

[Chris Davis]

I installed one tonight, it looks great.  Thanks for making this!