Slot Bypass Board Manufacturers
Slot Bypass Card Description
Slot bypass boards are designed to act as a blank panel and extend all the way to the back plane to jumper backplane daisy chain signals. Some interface standards include signals that run from card to card or slot-to-slot, in a daisy chained manner. The signals need either a card inserted in a slot or a jumper placed on the backplane to allow the signal(s) to pass to the next slot. Slot bypass boards jumper the signals eliminating the need for a circuit card or jumper on the backplane. The problem with backplane jumpers is that technicians might forget to remove them when inserting a card into a particular card slot. By-pass eliminate the problem because the jumpers get removed when the by-pass board gets removed. So all the operates know that will no card in the slot, the slot is no longer jumpered to the next slot.
Slot bypass boards are also called air diverters because the blank metal plate that
extends from the front of the chassis to the rear of the card cage blocks air from
passing through that empty slot. Air diverters like Filler Panels are used in a
chassis to cover an unused card slot, they are always blank and have no cut-outs. These
panels may also be called an Air Dam.
A Slot By-Pass card stops air from moving out the front of the card cage [Filler
Panel], and forces air toward cards on either side of the empty slot, cooling adjacent
cards.
When metal Card Guides are used Slot By-Pass
cards will also act as an EMI Shield between cards on either side of the slot. So a
Slot By-pass card may provide EMI protection for the card cage by providing a blank
panel and provide protection between adjacent cards.
Dawn VME Products
{VME/VME64x Slot Bypass Board; 3U, 6U, 9U height, 160, 220, 280, 340 and 400mm
depth}
Pixus Technologies
{Anodized Filler Panels w/air management for AdvancedTCA, cPCU, VME}
Power Supplies; next page in this section
Slot by-pass boards or panels are always a good idea when you have an empty slot in the chassis. But at the same time, it depends on the chassis; how is the air flow moving inside the chassis or do you need to make sure you have so much air movement across a circuit card. Do you have noise issue between two cards.
Index section; How To Specify a Equipment Chassis
Related chassis topics;
Introduction to Chassis EMI Issues.
Air flow and Chassis Thermal Issues.
Adding a Ground Lug and grounding concerns.
