exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

Still working on this and have created the Gotek or modern Floppy Drive slot to complement the short button slot. Now figuring out how this could become a panel instead of part of the complete grill section.

Great work !

Icky wrote: 05 Dec 2021 20:15 Now figuring out how this could become a panel instead of part of the complete grill section.

I would suggest that the whole rounded rectancle becomes a panel, you clip the one that fits your gear (short button, long button, gotek, ...)

Thanks @sporniket, that’s the idea to have it look seamless whilst keeping the integrity of the case structure. I am working on three options at the moment and the one that is similar to the rear panel with slots is looking the better solution at the moment. However it’s not until I tryout prototypes that I will see which is the best.

Of course, that end plate is structural and gives most of the rigidity to the case.

I s'pose if the "cut out" for the different drive face plates snapped in from the front or rear, or were held in place by the drive face plate it might work, as long as it doesn't take up too much of the area, weakening it.

Icky wrote: 05 Dec 2021 14:08With the back panel now removable we can add slots for all sorts. e.g. USB, SD or CF card slot etc. However to your point @PhilC I just created the initial panel for the STE joystick ports and I can see we could have a few versions such as a USB port panel.

Something similar has already been done: https://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.p ... 33#p283333 so sure, why not.

:thumbup:

Amazing !

stephen_usher wrote: 05 Dec 2021 22:31 Of course, that end plate is structural and gives most of the rigidity to the case.

The Falcon has the full-rectangle cut out without any obvious rigidity issues. Have I misunderstood your concern?

BW

It depends upon whether there's enough material in the lower half of the side panel to provide the stiffness for the structure.

These look great are you having them made? I know machine tooling for a production run can be very expensive but have you considered one of the large 3D printing companies that can make these using sintering instead of fdm. I haven't used any of them myself I have an Ultimaker but the sintering would look loads better and doesn't haver the setup costs.

Brian

UnderTheRain wrote: 30 Dec 2021 21:20 These look great are you having them made? I know machine tooling for a production run can be very expensive but have you considered one of the large 3D printing companies that can make these using sintering instead of fdm. I haven't used any of them myself I have an Ultimaker but the sintering would look loads better and doesn't have the setup costs.

@Icky built a printer to do this stuff. https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... 300#p62201 Though he is pretty much still prototyping.