Thoughts on Patching and Wires

Well, I’m not ready to share yet, but I am trying out a thing in the next few days to combat this situation. More soon.

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Matrix chip? I’ve looked at this mainly because it also allows you to record the patch and retrieve it.

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Oh, way more analog than that. I’m talking about a different case case. I didn’t mean to overly hype what I’m doing, just wanted to capture the moment of spaghetti.

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I like lunetta. :stuck_out_tongue: please tell me youre making a SEAMOS monster :smiley:
make it messier… shhhh… no need to combat wombat.

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You do realize there are other uses for an anti-gravity device other than keeping cords off your modules don’t you :smiley:

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Ceiling mount your case. Let gravity work for you. Pros: you get to patch lying down. Cons: You have to build scaffolding. Or I suppose you could convert a bunk bed to a synth case.

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Ironically, this isn’t far from what I’m doing :rofl:

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Just wondering if running some patches through the autoroute function of easyeda or suchlike would provide an optimal layout?

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Some kind of intermediate patch point? The idea is that you have a number of bus bars running parallel to the modules. Instead of running cables willy nilly from jack to jack you run a much shorter cable to a jack on a nearby bus bar, completing the patch with another short cable at the other end.

The problem with this is the number of busbars you’d need to make this idea practicable, and the expense of conventional jacks. So you need to find a way to make many inexpensive, compact intermediate patch points.

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That is actually a different project I’m currently mulling over. What I’m doing right now is a lot more mundane. Essentially just a new expandable case situation. I should be ready to share some time next week if not tomorrow.

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I had such high hopes, but my new setup is not really improving on the spaghetti much. I was thinking:

  1. The non-vertical nature of my four angled rows was contributing significantly to making panels nearly inaccessible and so going back to a vertical layout would make use of gravity and perhaps some longer cables to keep them more visible and reachable.
  2. I had run out of space in my rack and getting close to also running out of space in my two older racks, so it would be neat to have an infinitely expandable system with identical racks as building blocks. I found affordable 18U wall mountable rack frames with fronts that swing out so the inside is accessible. In the end, the gaps between the racks are annoying and I find I have less flexibility in arranging modules.
  3. It would be really neat if I could use my mad (OK, rudimentary) PCB design skills to make cheap and easily reproducible rails that span the width of a standard rack without taking out space for rack ears. I was prepared for this part of my solution to fail because they may not be rigid enough. They’re not. I had 20 made (10 rows). I tapped all the holes (that’s 1800 of them) with a drill in layers of six at a time (and the first two individually). It all sort of works, but the flex is ultimately unbearable.

So, I’m on to my next new build in the next few days, but here are a few shots of what I ended up with:

Side note: I know @lookmumnocomputer likes to refer to Kosmo as metric 5U, but it’s actually almost precisely half 9U, so I was thinking if things worked out, the 18U racks could also be used for four rows of Kosmo.

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I will say it looks pretty good in the photos.

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ok so hows it going ?

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Well, I abandoned the idea entirely and am currently working on more Kosmo space :slight_smile:

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