One thing I like about the Replica One is the inclusion of an ATX power connector.

I like the idea of a beefy, well-made PSU driving my SBC.

Is that something you guys wished you had on your SBC's? As cool as it is, I wonder how practical it would actually be.

One advantage I can think of would be for legacy cards that used different voltages.

What are your thoughts?

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Cat; the other white meat.

An easy-to-obtain source for regulated +3v3, +5v, +12v, and -12v? Sounds good to me!

Maybe something like this?

The downside is that you pretty much have to be doing custom PCBs for this in order to fit the connector, rather than breadboard or perfboard work.

I don't like to use PC power supplies for hobby projects, because of their ability to provide near infinite currents when you make a short. At the very least, the board should have some appropriately rated resettable fuses.

One other downside is those connectors are pretty big. Molex or berg connectors are a nice compromise: 5V and 12V with a nice smallish connector.

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8 bit fun and games: https://www.aslak.net/

I would think that anyone involved in electronics would have a quiet, linear-regulated benchtop power supply, like this protected and current-limited triple one I use from Global Specialies:

which has +5V and adjustable plus and minus ones. It's good to be able to monitor the current sometimes too, and the meter is right there on the front. For the higher-voltage positive supply, I sometimes need to be able to adjust it rather than having a straight +12V, primarily when I program PIC16 microcontrollers with my home-made programmer which is controlled by the workbench computer. The Vpp usually needs to be +13.25V. (The workbench computer's D/A converter controls the programmer's regulator to down-regulate the VDD.)

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http://WilsonMinesCo.com/ lots of 6502 resources
The "second front page" is http://wilsonminesco.com/links.html .
What's an additional VIA among friends, anyhow?

That's a very good point. I hadn't thought of that.

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Cat; the other white meat.

I just have this horrible vision of smoke and sparks and flames accompanied by shouting and hand waving as the "infinite currents" work their way to all the new "paths of least resistance" that they're creating and burning through the circuit.

The nice thing about infinite currents is that they only last for infinitesimal time. But they do non-zero damage in that time. (Dirac delta function?)

When I designed POC V2 I went with the Berg connector. It's about one half the width of the Molex connector that I was using on POC V1, and is easier to connect and disconnect.



Or as an instructor of mine long, long ago once wisecracked when one of his students accidentally reversed a rectifier diode in a power supply circuit and flipped the switch, he (the student) succeeded in instantly converting a semiconductor into a full-time conductor.

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x86?  We ain't got no x86.  We don't NEED no stinking x86!

It's called a semiconductor because half the time you'll put it in the right way around?

Of course, my singular complaint the Molex connector, and perhaps the berg one, is that they "click in".

Now, I understand why they "click" in, why a secure physical connection is necessary, how things can "creep" as they heat and cool, etc. etc.

I appreciate all of the realities of why some connectors "lock" in to place.

That doesn't mean I have to like them. I always hated fighting particularly stubborn ones in the confines of PC cases surrounded with sharp, barely finished metal edges.

You guys reminded me of the NED (noise emitting diode) here. Hats off to Igor Pravaganda, the father of the confetti generator!

Mike B.

I thought semiconductors were the little short men who lead the orchestra. You always see them standing on a little platform so they can be up high enough to see.

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http://WilsonMinesCo.com/ lots of 6502 resources
The "second front page" is http://wilsonminesco.com/links.html .
What's an additional VIA among friends, anyhow?

I agree the Molex connectors can be real bears to unplug, especially when your knuckles are close to sharp sheet metal edges. The Berg connectors only put up a little bit of resistance and can be readily pulled with thumb and forefinger. On the other hand, in dealing with a Molex connector, you just have to give it the finger.

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x86?  We ain't got no x86.  We don't NEED no stinking x86!

Magnetic would have been nice, I think. It at least works fine on simpler, external plugs. Some care would have to go into the design for a multi-pin magnetic connector.
As for the replica one.. mine doesn't use an ATX connector. Maybe the old ones did.