I had bought a number of ABS enclosures for ground control stations and generally to carry client prototypes around. I had a spare one that didn't fit the stuff I wanted it to:
They are very good cases and it was a shame not to use it. I installed some banana connectors on the far side (not shown) to connect a variety of external power supplies.
Inside, it is filled with foam scored in a grid pattern. You break off pieces to fit the part you want to store. In our case, we want to store a small piece of perfboard with our circuitry:
The connector at the top is for power, to the bottom is trigger input, and to the right is output. In our case, we will connect the trigger input and the output to a control panel. I have tons of scrap brass panels around, leftovers from building various prototypes. One happen to fit!
I dug through my parts bin for switches and flanged LEDs (I always have flanged LEDs). We're spoiled for choice when it comes to industrial switches in Vietnam, so I found some pretty good stuff. I drilled holes, mounted the parts, and it all fit in pretty well... except the panel would slide around when you tried to flip the power switch. I mean, of course -- It isn't attached to anything!
I had kept some mounting points for glass tabletops for the better part of a decade for some reason. They looked quite good, so I drilled holes in the corners and in they went.
These have a shaft that inserts itself into the foam, securing the panel in place reasonably well. The whole thing now looked quite decent, had a good weight, and good tactile feedback on all inputs!
I finished up by adding some labels. I'm out of ferric chloride and solvent, so I printed up some stickers. The solution to the problem is always in the room!
For now, the output is simply connected to the control panel LEDs, however it's designed to be connected to another device one day. For now, this is fine though -- the button lights up nicely when active, and the flanged LEDs look good are lit clearly:
Discussions
Become a Hackaday.io Member
Create an account to leave a comment. Already have an account? Log In.