The Diego showman board works perfect for me.
View attachment 51900
Like this rig. As I looked at it, something occurred to me too.
There have been statements in the FM-3 sub-forum that an FM-3 and a FC-6 do not work due to the oversized form factor compared to the AX8. People have argued an FM 7/8/9 would be a better form factor. Others have argued that basing the AX8 replacement on the FC-12 form factor would be a better approach.
This board is perfect to look at the assertions that are being made. We have a 20.2” wide FC-12 and two (2) 4.1” EV-1 pedals. The width of the gear is 28.4”. At minimum this would require a 30” wide board.
For FM-3 with an FC-6 and two expression pedals, you have an 11.2” FM-3, an 11.2” wide FC-6 and a 4.1” EV-1. The width of the gear is 30.6”. At minimum this would require a 32” board. With only a single expression pedal, the total gear width is 26.5”. At minimum this would require a 28” board.
As far as the availability of boards for such configurations:
http://trailertrashpedalboards.com/proseries-boards
http://trailertrashpedalboards.com/custom-wiring-accessories
Now consider the alternate form factors (and increase in processing specs) being bandied about, this is where this picture really helps. Anything based on the FC-12 form factor will have the same space requirements as this board. The difference between the FC-12 form factor and the FC-3 + FC6 is 2.2”. This means a 30” or 36” board when looking at the links I provided. Both are still sizable boards.
A 9 or 10 button FM would likely be based on the FC-12 in order to accommodate the extra buttons, extra processing power, and support the thermal budget. The cost increase would be meaningful and the board is still considerably larger than the AX8.
A 7 or 8 button FM would likely only eliminate a single column of buttons in order to accommodate the extra processing power and to support the thermal budget. This would save around 3”. Taking the width down to ~18.2”... more than 2” wider than the AX8. The total width of this device and two (2) EV-1 expression pedals would be 26.4”. Which means at minimum you would need at minimum a 28” board.
By way of comparison, an AX8 and two (2) expression pedals would come in at 24.5” total width and would require at minimum a 28” board. A 28” board is not small. A 7 switch configuration with and FM-3, two (2) Mission TT-2 switches, and two (2) EV-1 expression pedals would have a total width of 23” and would require a board of at least 24”. None of these boards are small.
I found it interesting looking at this picture, using it to visualize and consider all the ideas being thrown around on the FM-3 sub-forum.