Hi Everyone, a quick update. I received some neutrik style connectors a couple of days ago and made up a mock up to test placement and layout. I initially had them too close together to be easily usable, the larger spacing is not too bad (tested with a couple of people). If you've got really fat fingers you may need to put them in / out in sequence, but the fattest fingers I've been able to test with have been fine
I played around with mounting them vertically or horizontally, but realised just a few mins ago that the horizontal levers would hit the heatsink on one side, so vertical it is! It was also the configuration that tested easiest for access and getting the plugs in and out, so that was handy.
I've been told the custom heatsink is on its way and should be here soon. Once it's arrived I'll locate where to get the holes drilled and then I'll be able to finalise the control box cut outs. Almost there... once I've got final costing on that I'll update the final price for everyone. I'll need to get samples of the pre-drilled heatsink and the pre-cut box before ordering the whole lot and finding out it was done wrong, so just keep that in mind as you eagerly await the controller.
Dave - as far as price guide - I gave an original price guide of $145+postage, but I had not included the heatsink and the temp probe in that, which will be included, and had not planned at that point to use the higher quality power connectors. Essentially it's going to be more than that and I'll update once I actually have a final cost worked out for everything. There's no point giving another guide and being wrong again
Some pics of progress!
The connectors:
Layout Options for power connectors: vertical positioning on left, horizontal on right (right hand side latches would hit heatsink - not possible). This is the second round the first didn't have enough space around the sockets to grab them adequately / more easily.
Realised that power supply at top won't work - the power supply touches the back of the arduino and may short something.
Power Supply at right - it will show through the front cover, but is out of the way of the mega, which is why it can't be on the left.
Putting the power supply at the bottom is an option - potentially could use double sided mounting tape or similar to keep it in place instead of screws on the bottom of the controller?
In the various images you will see (if you look carefully ) the lines that show where the SSRs and power supply fit. It's pretty tight in there, but it
should will work!