13 Jan
2006
13 Jan
'06
10:54 p.m.
Has anyone come up with an elegant
solution to being able to use
the front panel power switch while keeping it safe? I was toying with some
sort of low-voltage circuit (small LV transformer and relay, with the front
panel switch in the loop on the coil side). Another idea I had was to hot
glue a dielectric insulator board (that gray cardboard kind of stuff) over
the parts of the front panel that would be exposed.
The bad thing about the IMSAI design is the bare connections to mains at
the top of the panel - normally the remainder of the panel is fairly safe
behind the acrylic front - even with the cover off. You can cover the pads
at the top of the board with a few strips of good electrical tape.
If you really don't want mains power at the front panel at all, then a relay
is paobably the best solution - lots of room to mount it (and the xfmr to
power it), and you don't have to modify the front panel.
--
dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield
dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com
com Collector of vintage computing equipment:
http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html