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Re: Extender Card for TM500/TM5000 with Test points on every line.


 

I have my boards made at PCBWay. They produce extremely high quality boards at very reasonable prices. When gold fingers are involved using the traditional gold over nickel the fingers are electroplated which takes extensive time and Gold is EXPENSIVE. The difference in cost between the 5 board minimum and 25 boards is only about $35, once you cover the extra setup. If I pursue the project, they will also do a 30 degree bevel on the finger end of the board to allow it to fit into the female connector easily. I am investigating a less costly but still rugged finger treatment called Enepig (electroless nickel electroless palladium immersion gold). This finish is cheaper to apply than the the electroplated gold over nickel, but still make a set of boards in the $150 + range instead of the $20+ range.

Another expensive item is the Female connector. I plan to use the Sullins ECM28DRKN-S!3 which can be ordered from Digikey for $10.72 each, but minimum order is 10 pcs.
This very high quality connector uses full bellows Gold over Nickel phosphor bronze contacts. The contacts and the plastic are rated at 125 degrees C.
The gold plated 4-pin headers are not cheap, either and 56 of them are required for each extender board. FCI part number 95293--101-04LH (30u" gold over NI) or 95283-801LF (15u" Gold over NI). The Jumpers are also expensive: FCI 65474-001. 56 required, 60 recommended in case you lose a couple.

The design is very high quality, but as a result it is not cheap. Actually the construction will be superior to the male end of my Tek 067-0645-02 TM500 extender cable. The male end of their cable did not have the 30 degree bevel which makes it much harder to insert into a female connector than the typical plug in.

I am continuing to research the costs for this project, but it is not going to come in at the $50 price of the one on eBay that uses raw copper for the board and fingers, with no test points.

Hopefully there will be enough interest to group buy the parts.

Steve

On 2025-02-18 10:22, Roy Thistle via groups.io wrote:
On Mon, Feb 17, 2025 at 12:56 PM, Eric Garner wrote:

Not to dissuade OP from their project
Well... many of us...on this forum... IMO... are hobbyists.
Probably, I am not very smart... but AFAICT... time, connectors, and
fiddling around with shipping, can be expensive... but, high quality
PCB are not.
On way around the distribution problem is to register a 'project' with
a PCB manufacturer, and then anyone can order the PCB.
Also, at least down to common components, the PCB manufacturer can
also manufacture the thing to that level, and even provide a kit.
The connectors for these...ARAIK... are not as much of a problem
sourcing anymore.
If one is worried about quality, and not their wallet... then buying
the Tektronix ones... when they show up... might be a better solution.

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