Friday, June 12, 2020

Plates arrived to construct the connectors for the DSKY components

RECAP OF MY WOOD PLATES AND APOLLO CONNECTORS

The connectors for Apollo DSKY (Display/Keyboard) are manufactured using the individual Malco mini-WASP pins pressed into holes in an aluminum or other metal plate to form some array of pins spaced .125" apart. Since mini-WASP pins are a precious commodity, I designed an alternative that would leave the pins in original condition for re-use after my project is done.

I had Ponoko.com laser-cut my design into thin maple wood, giving me a wood plate that could have the nylon holder of the mini-WASP pin pressed in without compressing or damaging the nylon. I build a stack of a plate holding the pin and an upper plate that allowed only the pin's wire-wrap post through. I could then wire-wrap to make connections and easily remove the wire after I am done. 

PLATES MATCH THE DESIGN AND WORK PROPERLY WITH THE PINS

The plates align perfectly with the male pins on the three DSKY modules I have on hand. I tested the press fit of a mini-WASP into the plate and it was as good as I could expect. Removal leaves no damage to the pins but when pressed on it has adequate hold power. With the top plates added I have a great surface to install the wire-wrap cabling. 


BUILDING THE POWER SUPPLY CONNECTOR

My first connector construction was for the simplest of the three modules, the Power Supply Module that needs only nine pins. I quickly put it together and moved the wires over from the temporary pins. I am pleased with the connector I have constructed and its operation.


BUILDING THE RELAY MODULE CONNECTOR

The Relay Module has space for 137 pins but for the purposes of this demonstration project I only need to install 75 of them.  They consists of three groups for different purposes:
  • 11 bring the 250 VAC 800 Hz power from the power supply
  • 20 are control inputs from the Arduino based driver to activate the relays
  • 44 deliver voltage to the segments of the EL panel

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