While kludging past a mechanical manufacturing (or perhaps
design) error on a Norco 5-in-3 SAS/SATA hotswap disc cage, I was
struck by how simple (and poorly-made) the backplane appeared to
be.  Just the power and data connectors on one side, the SAS
connector on the  other, a couple of jumpers for fan behavior,
and some capacitors.  Slightly more complex than the 80- to
68-pin u320 adapter sitting in front of me now, which doesn't
have caps, but not obviously much more complex.

I'd like to try my hand at  building single-port SAS hotswap
backplanes both for the experience and to upgrade older server
cases that would be fine except that they're plumbed for u320
rather than SAS.

Since I'm not a EE/ET, I don't have the background to undertake
designing from scratch.  But I do have some fabrication
experience.  Ages ago I was a commercial artist, so am
well-skilled in graphics editors to provide inhuman precision,
and do a little silversmithing and enamelwork, so am used to
photoetching metal.

Can anyone provide a pointer to a plan for such a backplane, or
even a schematic & BOM?

Many thanks for any help!
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