MiSTer FPGA Forum

Hey all,

So I just took the plunge and purchased the DE10 Nano which will be arriving later this month.

In the meantime, I'm acquiring the bare essentials for a minimalist setup and have decided to purchase add ons at a later time. Pretty much, I will be only working with the DE10 Nano and the SDRAM. I'm also investing in proper ventilation and a good power supply to ensure longevity of the board.

I also would like to invest in a case but I am having difficulty locating one to just house the DE10 Nano and vertical SDRAM setup with no add ons. It seems to me the minimum you need is the stack setup (de10 nano + usb hub and IO board add ons) and I would prefer to invest in those extras at a later time if possible.

For reference, a case like this would be perfect: https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/847252118/

I'm contemplating purchasing the fan plate + heatsink combo from misterfpga.co.uk and housing that as a whole: https://misterfpga.co.uk/product/mister ... -heatsink/

I'm wondering if there might be some blueprints out there that meet this criteria so I can use a 3D printer to print one? I'm even happy settling with legos at this point if people have an efficient build for that.

Thanks in advance!

I had this printed for my setup.

https://www.printables.com/model/79238- ... plate-case - Here's from Retro Frog. He also sells them, but shipping might be high if you are from Australia.

If you have the makerspot usb hub, you can use this for now instead --> https://www.printables.com/model/79227- ... plate-case

USB Hub is pretty essential. You can use a cheeap OTG hub, but the official board makes it so much easier

FPGA64 wrote: ↑Mon Sep 19, 2022 12:10 pm USB Hub is pretty essential. You can use a cheeap OTG hub, but the official board makes it so much easier

And makes it much safer for the rather fragile usb port on the DE-10.
The jumper board really makes it much,much harder to break the only usb port on the DE-10 nano that can be used for all the "USB stuff".

USB hub is completely nonessential. I'd been using a cheap OTG one for nearly 2 years and never had any problems.

Yeah I have heard about how fragile the USB port on the DE-10 is. Investing in the stack would make things a lot more convenient and easier (as well as alleviate the usb concern) but I'm just gonna stick with the DE-10 for the time being. I have noticed a lot of advancements in regards customisation options for the MiSTer and I am still uncertain at this point how I picture my ideal setup. I will get a better understanding of this over time from using it and reading more into how to approach particular setups (have found information boards particularly enticing which I want to integrate in future). Not to mention, I probably have spent about half of the stack's cost just acquiring things for setup (cables, SDRAM and international shipping add up). Haven't even got the case sorted yet haha.

Speaking of, appreciate the suggestions so far. I only just bumped into this one which integrates the micro usb hub which I thought was cool: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4729714

Does anyone know if micro usb hubs like these require external power to supply sufficient power to all connections? https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01JL837X8

I have been mostly coming across these (more readily available here it seems/can get sooner) which use an external power supply. Anyone have any experience with this kind? I have heard they might have some speed issues: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B00LTHBCNM/

MiSTer's USB port is fragile, but it only matters if you intend on moving your setup often, for whatever reason. In my use case I mostly haven't even seen my MiSTer much, never mind move it, because it was tucked away on a shelf and all my interfacing devices are wireless.

It's generally better idea to buy an externally powered OTG hub. The basic ones might be enough for KB+M, controller and maybe WiFi dongle, but if you'd like to also plug a hard drive there it could not be enough.