Front Panel Express

[gregebert]

I finally gave this manufacturer a try, and I was very impressed with the quality, pricing, and fab time for 2 panels that will be used on my next project. The tool is available for free from them (frontpanelexpress.com) and is very easy to use. You can also import DXF files if you do your design on other software.

Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with this company, but I know they can make an impressive panel for you.

In my case, I had several items in my junkbox from old equipment I had, and wanted to incorporate them into my next clock.

The mockups were done using my 3D printer, and I used openscad to create the panels just to see how they looked. 3D prints are a bit raspy, but acceptable. I decided to price-out an aluminum panel (black anodized aluminum, with white engraved lettering), and it was around 45 USD including shipping. It took a few hours to manually remap my openscad design into their tool, but when the panel came back, the appearance was jaw-dropping. So, no more 3D printed panels for me.......I got the second panel today.

Their tool also calculates pricing with a mouse-click, so you know what your cost will be when considering features.

Turnaround time for both panels was just under 1 week.

I'm attaching photos, but they are a dis-service because the actual product is very high quality, with no visible imperfections of any kind.

Everything fit exactly as I hoped; got it perfect on the first attempt. But that was only possible because I debugged via my own 3D test-prints.

The panel lamps are for bayonet-style neon bulbs, commonly found in the 1950s/1960s. I got several of these from my father about 50 years ago, and was lucky to find some identical ones on Ebay recently. They have been retrofitted with LED bulbs and are now very bright.

The thumbwheel switch assembly was from a former neighbor, who was an EE that worked on cockpit instruments. He actually got me signed-in on one of his site installations and I got to spend a few hours in a 747 cockpit, and the avionics bay. That was a way-cool experience.

The square pushbutton switches came from a piece of test equipment I got back in 1976. It was a Microdot FM signal generator, model 412A, and this is very special to me because this same instrument had a 6-digit frequency counter with nixie tubes. Those same 6 tubes sat in my junkbox for 35 years until I built my first nixie clock back in 2011. Putting the same switches to use in a new clock, with 6 RZ568m tubes from Dalibor, is something I've wanted to do for a long time. Since the keycaps are engraved, you're limited to what you can do with them, but I used my imagination and all 10 of these have a purpose. They were also retrofitted to use LEDs instead of the original #327 bulbs. There are a few colored LEDs with sufficient luminosity to replace the incandescent bulbs, so I'l have a mix of red, green, blue, and white buttons.

I have a long way to go to finish this project: 3 more PC boards, plus all the software, and the case. And 1 more panel for the 9-segment panaplex display....

[Mark Moulding]

I've used Front Panel Express for a couple of years now, and I agree that they're fantastic.  The product they create is of exceptional quality, the design tool is very easy to use yet completely functional, and the price is very reasonable considering the quality of the finished project.

Here's a somewhat risque project I made using a front panel from them - I got many favorable comments about the look of the control panel.

  

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Mark Moulding

[Paul Andrews]

I’ve used protocase in the past. As the name implies, they will make the entire case. I know that front panel express offer that too, but protocase have a wide selection of styles to choose from.