We'd normally have Melrose Nameplate do a polycarb overlay, but nobody has time to do the artwork just now. We may some day.
-- John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc picosecond timing precision measurement jlarkin att highlandtechnology dott com http://www.highlandtechnology.com
x_1.JPG
x_2.JPG
x_3.JPG
x_4.JPG
Satisfyingly clean design overall, and nice sharp pics, too, but I'm a li ttle disappointed- I'm a back-panel kind of guy. Proprietary?
That LCD would have saved us some grief when we made up a one-off much si mpler, smaller-scale version of that at the systems integrator house I work ed at in the 90's. Ours wasn't driven by a computer, just a pair of time-de lay relays wired as a 1-second period flip-flop driving a PLC module wired as a counter (it was a spare and the Big Boss wasn't looking). It stepped f ive DUTs through a five-instrument suite holding on each for 100 counts.
It was a pain to lose track of where it was in its count while you were w atching the scope for a glitch you thought you'd seen out of the corner of your eye while looking at the DVM or whatever only to have your waveform sq uiggle into Something Completely Different from the next DUT. The LCD could have told us what the count was so we could "pause" it by slipping one of the relays out of its socket a little bit without having to wait for it to come around again...
I suppose we could have added a NC pushbutton or toggle to do that but we didn't think of it and had to test tuckloads of different components for a Government contract, no batch sampling allowed, and of course we were time
-crunched. Unbox and plug a bunch of stuff in, jam the relay in, watch the instruments, pull the relay, stickers on the tested good parts and into box es, repeat. For a couple of weeks. I wanted to kill the guy who'd allowed " zero defect guarantee" into the contract. It wasn't like the install guys d idn't ALWAYS pre-test before Official Final Test Day and replace mortalized infants as needed.
Lesson learned. Fun times.
Mark L. Fergerson
Oh, muy bad; analog anything has been banned by the Feds. Digital TV = = you get a signal or you do not get a signal; binary one or binary zero.
To do the equivalent of what i mentioned, use your stupid digital camera ("stupid" here means you cannot tweak for high contrast) and take photo. Import to computer. Get and use "app" and convert color to B&W making sure transition point is correctly adjusted. Now you have a beautiful digital image, not too useful for printing on a panel,but maybe better than a kick in the head. Use another app to print on something that can be used for the making of the silk screen. More steps, more hassle for same result.
I want it to look like this. That's our style.
or
We can actually print on heavy plasticized paper, which is pretty much indistinguishable from a polycarb sticker. But I don't have anyone with the time to do the artwork just now.
-- John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc lunatic fringe electronics
It's the crosspoint switch based test fixture. first discussed here about a year ago,
-- This email has not been checked by half-arsed antivirus software
Carry on then.
Slotted screws are horrible in uses like this. They're harder to drive into place, harder to remove and more likely to be dropped. Screwdriver slippage will cause the driver top to hop across the board and hit anything nearby. The screws appear to be stainless or something else non-magnetic as well. I can see myself shaking that box upside down over carpet to find whatever just jumped away.
Even torx rate higher as easier to deal with.
For whatever reason, Germans still seem to love slotted screws, although this practice seems to be stopping.
That original panel artwork looked darn good; if the lighting had been uniform and the "beast" exactly level, i could have made a positive with little effort.
Sure thing old timer.
How would you generate the original artwork for the front panel? I can't wait to hear how it would old take a few minutes with some tape or stencils and a series of 4 photos of photos and a carbon arc light.
Lol! Hardly. The analog camera film would be an arbitrary size and so would need to be printed to another negative, but much larger. Is that easy to find, large format negative film? I guess it was common back in the days of taping layouts. Even then you had to do a calibration to get the size you need of the final image.
I think pressing a button or two is a *lot* easier. I guess you could just cut out a developed picture and sandwich it between two pieces of poly. :)
-- Rick C
I don't get why this is so hard to do. A half way decent drawing package would let you do this in an hour or so. Give me a drawing for the dimensions (hand drawn is fine) and I'll do it. I'd need an image file for the logo and tell me what font you want for the writing.
-- Rick C
Lol, how much did the big board cost you? How many did you buy? Looking at the picture makes me think it could have been done more cheaply with modules, but then you have connectors.
-- Rick C
I just had tours of two printing shops. One was a normal business, the other was run by a goverment organization.
Both used digital plate makers. All designs are done on a computer. The goverment office used a device that burned into the surface of the plates with a laser. It only takes a minute to make a huge plate. Those then go into either the "modern" multi color presses or into the 1960s German printing presses.
No more process cameras, no more darkrooms, no more hand layout.
That aside, there really was't much if a difference between the two. It was about efficiency at the commercial shop and doing the least amount of work at the government one.
Without question an incredible amount of skill was needed to run the old presses with all manual controls. They apparently had no problem doing full color jobs one color at a time on the same machine.
In this case, it looks like the artwork was generated on the panel making it the master; no tape, no stencils per se. Just one photo; carbon arc light not needed. I just used available light, high contrast orthochromatic film and D8 developer.
How does that get printing on the front panel? You still need to make some sort of screen, and then actually print onto the metal, unless I'm mistaken. Unless they're setup for screen or pad printing engraving and filling in the letters might be the way to go. There's a lot of jacks popping out the front so cutting all the holes in a printed plastic overlay might be a hassle.
He was talking about artwork. The silk screen for printing(if that is the technique to be used) remains with no regard to HOW the artwork was produced. Same story if printing/exposing on that polycarb overlay is done.
Interesting..afterwards, i scrolled down and found:
For low production runs they print directly on the back of the polycarbonate then add the adhesive. There's no need for physical artwork of any sort.
Our label guys digitally print (inkjet?) onto the polycarb, any colors that we want. They apply some protective clear stuff over the printing. They laser cut the outline and holes. I don't think labels are often silk screened any more.
We make proto/demo labels here by printing on thick sticky-back paper. The real hassle is making the artwork, not making the labels.
-- John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc picosecond timing precision measurement jlarkin att highlandtechnology dott com http://www.highlandtechnology.com
ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.