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Old 28th Mar 2023, 1:04 am   #221
SiriusHardware
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Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Newcastle, Tyne and Wear, UK.
Posts: 11,485
Default Re: Yet another MK14 tape interface (ESP32).

For Colin's hypothetical connector / bridge board the most useful design would be:

Double sided PCB with 32 0.1" spaced contact fingers on the top side of the front and rear edges and 32 0.1" spaced contact fingers on the bottom side of the front and rear edge, so that both edges, front and rear, look like the edge connector on the rear of the MK14.

32 tracks on the top side crossing from each top side front edge contact to its top side counterpart on the rear edge, and 32 tracks on the underside joining the 32 contacts on the underside front and rear edges to make a double sided 2 x 32 way edge to edge joiner.

In the middle of this PCB, halfway between the front and rear, a 32 x 2 IDC pin row connector. Each of the 64 tracks visits one of these pins on the way from one edge to the other

Colin takes this PCB and slides a 'conventional' 32 way edge connector over the front edge contacts and solders the connector's leads to them on the top side and bottom side. He plugs that into the issue VI, and he slots the Realview onto the rear edge contacts. Finally, he connects the M5 stick to the relevant pin row connections.

Tim on the other hand takes the same PCB, but on his he puts a DIN connector on the front edge to match the one he has on the rear of his issue VI, and again slots his Realview onto the rear edge contact fingers.
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