NFGx
Grand Master
So I wanted a way to swap boards in and out of a cab more easily than unscrewing and re-screwing things to plywood. To my surprise, no one seems to have done this before. (Hat tip to @buffi for their Astro City Holder, which seems to be the only 3D printed prior work).
The goal was simple: make it easy. Buffi's system was great but obviously only good for the Astro City. I have a few different cabs, so I wanted a more flexible solution. The bottom was easy enough: the PCB needs to rest in a groove, that's easy. But the top, how to attach the top with something that can be easily printed? Buffi's system was genius, but of course I wanted to come up with the idea myself. This was the primary goal, but two other goals were reduced plastic use (not that buffi's uses too much, but that I want to use as little as possible) and I wanted a way to more firmly attach the game to the holder.
It took me a couple of days to work this out, and while I'm quite happy with the result. The next revision may allow this to be used for horizontal mounting as well..
I would absolutely love to iterate on this if anyone has any improvement suggestions.
Basically, it's a sliding rail system, with a single screw that holds the top of the PCB to the rail. This does mean that it's still held in place by gravity, but it's definitely not going to fall away from the board. I have a solution for that as well but it'll mean two screws.
Here's a demo: the red PCB is held in place by two bottom bits, and the screw-hole on top slides to line up with the PCB hole. Since the PCB hole location is unknown, the board can be moved slideways across the two bottom bits, and this particular rail has a ~15cm range, which should accommodate most boards.
The goal was simple: make it easy. Buffi's system was great but obviously only good for the Astro City. I have a few different cabs, so I wanted a more flexible solution. The bottom was easy enough: the PCB needs to rest in a groove, that's easy. But the top, how to attach the top with something that can be easily printed? Buffi's system was genius, but of course I wanted to come up with the idea myself. This was the primary goal, but two other goals were reduced plastic use (not that buffi's uses too much, but that I want to use as little as possible) and I wanted a way to more firmly attach the game to the holder.
It took me a couple of days to work this out, and while I'm quite happy with the result. The next revision may allow this to be used for horizontal mounting as well..
I would absolutely love to iterate on this if anyone has any improvement suggestions.
Basically, it's a sliding rail system, with a single screw that holds the top of the PCB to the rail. This does mean that it's still held in place by gravity, but it's definitely not going to fall away from the board. I have a solution for that as well but it'll mean two screws.
Here's a demo: the red PCB is held in place by two bottom bits, and the screw-hole on top slides to line up with the PCB hole. Since the PCB hole location is unknown, the board can be moved slideways across the two bottom bits, and this particular rail has a ~15cm range, which should accommodate most boards.
