New 18 Slot Motherboard / Upgrade

[Grant Stockly]

I decided not to make a "new" motherboard design but made a replica of an old motherboard. Let me know what you think!

This motherboard upgrade is available to kit owners for:

$400 - 18 slots + PCB kit
$320 - 18 slots + PCB kit with exchange of your good condition 4 slot motherboard
$250 - 8 of 18 slots + PCB kit (gives you an "8 slot" motherboard with the ability to add more slots later)
$170 - 8 of 18 slots + PCB kit with exchange of your good condition 4 slot motherboard

10 slots may be bought from DigiKey at a later date if you choose. (10 is the minimum order quantity)

I'm selling these at cost for you guys... The slots are $15 a piece and the PCBs aren't cheap! Its a 11x12" board and 1/8" thick.

This motherboard is the same thickness and made out of the same material as the 4 slot motherboard, except it has a solder mask on the bottom. (that is what makes it look different from the top) The vintage 18 slot motherboard had one, so I decided to keep it. It will make it easier to solder.

I also made all of the wiring holes slightly larger to assist in soldering it to the front panel. The 4 slot motherboard had some small holes that made it difficult!!!

This motherboard will allow you to get more slots without the pain of soldering in 100 jumper wires for each additional 4 slots.

Here are the pictures:





And here is a vintage board: (The main difference is the text "Homebrew 2007 and a website address...to keep people from passing it off as a real board).




This one has slots pushed in it because it is getting mailed to Geoff. I promised him it a while ago! Sorry for being late! It just arrived!

[mardy]

The board looks awesome!

Has anyone ever found a source for the card edge guides?

I have been toying with the idea of trying to produce some by hand using a rubber mold and Urethane casting resin.

[Grant Stockly]

I found a company that can make the guides for less than $1 a piece after I pay a $3500 tooling and drawing fee.

[mardy]

In that case, I will seriously look into trying to reproduce some. I have some original ones in the kit I just purchased. I'll first try to make an impression mold. If that doesn't work, I'll have to resort to milling a mold. A bit time consuming, but worth not having to shell out $3500.00.

[Grant Stockly]

Did you buy the kit off ebay? The $6,800 one?

If you end up making them close enough to the original, I might be able to buy a lot.

[mardy]

Actually the $6801.00 kit. More money than I've ever spent on a computer before and it doesn't even come with a useless copy of Microsoft Windows!

Of course I'm still hoping to get my hands on one of those fantastic Altair 8800 replica kits I've been hearing so much about