What is it?

BOM

H8 Front Panel PCB with 2 flex cables and 2 backplane adapters for easy connection to the backplane. This front panel is designed to use the Cherry MX1A-11NW key switches. It also has a built-in 2MHZ oscillator so it can be used at clock rates higher than 2MHZ. Some of my other H8 cards include a 2MHZ adapter but that adapter is not needed for this front panel.

Included:

• H8-FP PCB with 2 through-hole flex cable connectors

• 2 backplane adapters (PCB only) with through-hole flex cable connectors

• 2 flex cables

Why did you make it?

I wanted to redesign and modernize the H8 front panel and make it easy to hook up. The original front panel required soldering wires to points on the front panel PCB and then run those to a housing with crimped pins that plugs into the backplane. This redesign uses flex cables that plug into the front panel PCB and then plug into adapters that in-turn plug into the backplane making hooking up the front panel easy.

What makes it special?

Cherry push buttons, flex cable backplane adapters, 2MHZ oscillator built in.

Build a complete H8 computer (without chassis):

• H8 FRONT PANEL (this board)

• H8 Z80 CPU BOARD

• H8 FLOPPY DISK/RS232 BOARD

• H8 BACKPLANE

• ATX POWER SUPPLY