30 Nov
2014
30 Nov
'14
1:07 p.m.
On 2014-Nov-30, at 12:28 PM, Toby Thain wrote:
On 30/11/14 3:19 PM, Brent Hilpert wrote:
The 2116 is amazing even just from the mechanical engineering.
Looking at the backplane picture, the major frame pieces are cast aluminum.
Then notice the solid 1.5-by-0.5-inch machined aluminum rails which the backplane slides
out on.
Two of the rails split in half - you can see the stainless-steel alignment pins on the
ends of the rails, and the backplane swings open - the other two rails have integral
hinges. I should make a video showing this in action.
The rail structure is quite hidden, when I first got the machine it was quite perplexing
and I dismantled it from all angles trying to figure out how to get inside, before
realising what was going on.
On 2014-Nov-30, at 8:59 AM, Jon Elson wrote:
Lovely. One can see HP's famous devotion to engineering here.
Then, there was the system that came before wire-wrap. It had rectangular
posts on card edge connectors, and I think the wire was stranded. There was
a "gun" that had a roll of little tin-plated clips. You stuck the wire into
the
gun, and squeezed the handle. It drove a clip onto the pin, pinching the
wire through the insulation. I've forgotten the name of this system, too.
This was used for connecting up standard logic boards into a backplane,
not for use at the chip level.
Jon
Would that be these?:
http://www3.telus.net/~bhilpert/tmp/HP2116C/crimps.jpg
http://www3.telus.net/~bhilpert/tmp/HP2116C/backplane.jpg 
--Toby
>
> It's the backplane of an HP2116C.
> I've always wondered what the tradename for the technique was.
> Looks like in these machines the wire was stripped before crimping though.
>