Flying bus board management in a compact skiff

[philmaguire]

I’ve bought a Grau 6u 51hp case recently and it’s lovely, but managing the flying bus board is getting to be a bit of a problem. I have a couple of bus boards daisy chained, and they’re twisting and buckling as I add more modules, which in turn is making further additions difficult, as sockets aren’t flat on the bottom of the case.

Does anyone have any suggestions? New to modular and this is my first ‘proper’ case. I’m guessing there aren’t any fixed bus boards small enough for 51hp. A bit concerned because my plan for this case will require a few additional sockets…

Am I missing an incredibly simple solution? Or do I just need to press on?

@boboter - any ideas?

[sandy]

How about some brackets like these (or similar) to keep the cable flat on the bottom of the case? A few in between the sockets would do the job. Of course it would mean small screw holes in the case bottom but it’s not like they’re going to be seen or anything.

My other thought was hot glue but that’s a slightly more permanent solution!

[philmaguire]

Thanks! I’ll give that a look. I also found this compact bus board. A couple could work nicely: https://www.tindie.com/products/dhaillant/eurorack-compact-power-bus/

[sandy]

Good find.
I much prefer bus boards over flying cables for many of the reasons you state in your first post.

[philmaguire]

Yes! I very nearly got a make noise skiff but much prefer ‘square’ patching to a big long line of modules

[infovore]

There are definitely busboards small enough if you hunt around, or they’re pretty straightforward to DIY yourself. David Haillant makes several good things - I had a few of his wider boards in my old skiff, but the ‘compact’ bus might suit you. They’re cheap if you assemble yourself, but DH can assemble for you. They’ll also work entirely passively if you’ve already got power coming in from elsewhere.

[steveoath]

Watching this with interest. I have a (self imposed ) teeny weeny depth due to my choice of case. The flying boards are pretty twisty!

[philmaguire]

Great. I found his page earlier and was thinking about his compact boards. I guess two or three would chain together without any problem? I have a Koma power module so should work fine.

[infovore]

I wouldn’t chain them. In your small case, I’d take two of the small 10-unit busboards and run each one from one of the outputs on the STROM. That’d get you 18 outputs without too much daisychaining. I mean, wires are wires, but keeps things tidy-ish.

[joshhh]

You could also make your own daisy chain power cables with female connectors that attach directly from the PSU to modules, skipping the bus board entirely. I make my own single and daisy chain power cables with a tool and supplies from Jameco, pretty easy and inexpensive. The main downside is if you have some 16 pin and some 10 pin power cables you cannot chain them easily, and it is also much more annoying to rearrange. But we probably shouldn’t rearrange so much, anyway

If you or anyone is interested, I could dig up part numbers for the stuff I use.

[philmaguire]

Yeah, the module power cables + flying bus board = a right mess. My Disting is quite deep for this case so at the moment there are only certain spots I can put it.

[oscillateur]

Do you already have a power supply ?

If not, something like the Intellijel TPS30w Mini would probably work well. And if you need more than 10 connectors you can use a small flying busboard cable for 2 or 3 modules.

I had a Cell90 with flying busboard and that thing was a nightmare. I’m much happier with my Intellijel 7U case now, I added an extra 4ms passive busboard because I have a lot of modules in the case though.

It looks like that 4ms busboard would actually fit in your case, btw : http://www.4mspedals.com/busstick.php

[philmaguire]

I have a Koma Strom module.

I’ll check that 4ms board out and measure the exact dimensions of my case. Thanks!

[philmaguire]

Update for the couple of folk following along. Thonk (UK) have the 4ms boards in stock, so I’ve ordered one and will see how that goes.

[boboter]

Sorry for the late reply. I’m using the flying busboards from Grau Modular that I bought together with their power module.

They are different to e.g. 4ms ones as their connectors are way closer together. So they don’t dangle around and don’t cause too much spaghetti. Also their red striped side is up.

Still, the flying bus boards are too long for the small pocket case, so I folded the cables onto themselves a bit (After taping the unused connectors).

All in all, this works fine and a lot better than the regular flying bus boards that I had lying around. Filling up a case this shallow will always be a bit fiddly I case.

[philmaguire]

Update if anyone is following. 4ms shrouded bus stick arrived this morning. Haven’t fitted it yet but looks like it’ll do the job. nice and compact.

[xenus_dad]

I am interested! I am needing to fit 12-13 modules into a MN skiff, which has 10 power headers. Being able to make my own cables to suit particular arrangements sounds better than using a 7 header flying bus cable to accommodate two extra modules, which is what I’m having to do now.

[joshhh]

Here are the Jameco part numbers and descriptions, presuming they’re still the same/available as when I ordered a number of years ago.

You could always just cut off the extra sockets from your flying bus board. eliminating it would be a slightly cleaner solution, though less flexible - I have to make new cables half the time I rearrange since I have roughly 15 modules and 10 PSU sockets in my 7U 60hp case, which has become bothersome. I’m planning to make some simple stripboard bus boards to divide power for lower current analog modules while letting me rearrange without taking my whole rack apart. Still, if you know that you won’t be changing at least a few groups of modules often, making daisy chain power cables is the most minimal solution. Some of my rearranging hassles would have been mitigated by longer cables, too.

[khladomysl]

Hi! Sorry for ressurecting an old topic, but I’ve got the exactly same case and planning to place 4ms bus board as well. Does it fit in this case?

[philmaguire]

It fits with no problems