What to do when you have too many modules? Build another rack, of course!
I had parts for an open frame rack that I wasn’t using. Two 104hp rails with M3 sliding nuts, bookended by two aluminum end pieces. Not an enclosure, just a frame. It needed a power supply with some kind of power distribution. I don’t like flying bus power cables. I had used a Tiptop Audio Passive Bus Board before and decided to get another one. This time I paired it with a 4ms Row Power 35 module. The first task was to figure out how to mount the bus board.
Over to my local hardware store to buy a piece of aluminum sheet, plus a length of aluminum angle bracket. Luckily, the end pieces of the frame had pre-tapped M3 holes in convenient locations. I used these with the angle bracket material and the sheet metal to build a shelf for the bus board. The bracket running along the bottom edge (above) adds some strength to the assembly.
Connecting power
The Row Power 35 has a place for an MTA156 header, the same used for MOTM modules. I soldered one of my MTA156 headers there for easy detachment.
The bus board has an onboard 5V three terminal regulator that takes its input normally from a uZeus power module on a terminal labelled VR. I repurposed that terminal to supply +5V from the Row Power 35 instead. I removed the onboard regulator and then jumpered from the VR line over to the +5V distribution.
I used the Joranalogue Audio Test 3 to measure the voltages, all of which were very close to perfect.
I like to add a banana jack connected to the zero volt line, “ground”, so that I can patch between Eurorack cases and banana systems by connecting their power supply commons together. I also run ground cables between any Eurorack cases that I’m patching across, so that the signal patch cables do not have to carry current in the shield.
