Fin's Skeletor Box for nodes
After the stackable mod-box solution was in place at about 20 different packet nodes, the TNC-PI was discontined.
Nino and Tadd (mostly Nino) came up with NinoTNC and node building continued.
The stackable mod-box solution was rather complicated and mostly that was because the TNC-PI was rather hard to use.
The new NinoTNC was considerably easier to manage, and it had a wholly different set of controls and displays.
- No ribbon cable
- Easy to adjust
- LEDs and controls all faced off one edge of the board
This called for a new design.
Jay and Tadd came up with a design which served the purpose very well, but then in 2021, wood prices and availability became much worse.
Fin came up with his Skeletor design to
- take much less wood,
- be easier to ship,
- support different numbers of radio sets, and
- provide easier access to connections but while assembling and after assembly.
Design details
The cabinet is very rigid with most of the wooden parts friction fitted.
The housing that holds the control panel, 5v power supply, charger switchover-circuit, and Raspberry PI, is somewhat complicated and Fin intends to deliver that with all wood parts fully assembled.
There are some after-assembly mods which have been made to the prototype units.
It is unclear if Fin will make these modifications (gluing other parts on) or if it will be left to the owner operator.
The landscape for components, including batteries, NinoTNC mounting strategies, USB distribution, radio physical sizes, is constantly changing and it is likely that the after-assembly mods will continue to change.
I recommend that anybody bulding their first cabinet would poke at the
tarpn groups.io email reflector to see what features and modifications people have come up with.
The Plan for Production
Fin made prototypes of
- 3 radios high x 2 wide,
- 2 radios high x 2 wide
- 4 radios high x 1 wide
- 2 radios high x 1 wide
After local testing in North Carolina, Fin intends to pick one or two popular layouts and produce them in his shop.
The wood costs are minimal.
Fin intends to do make the parts and volunteer his labor.
The shipping will be up to other participants in his local group.
Movies
Fin made three videos about Skeletor.
Introduction to Skeletor
Assembly
Disassembly
