Case for Pro?

[Andrew Instone-Cowie]

Can anyone recommend a suitable case for a Pro? Not the backplane cases, but something to house the whole thing and keep the dust off?

[Tom Szolyga]

I found this case on eBay.  It is nice looking, with 3 different sizes and reasonably priced.  Search eBay for "blue metal electronic enclosure" or go to this URL:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Blue-Metal-Electronic-Enclosure-Project-Case-DIY-Junction-Box-110-250-190mm-USA-/263534465032 

[Andrew Instone-Cowie]

Thanks, sold have said I'm in the UK :) Will have a look for something similar.

[Richard Deane]

I'm building a pro at present, love a case , transparent, to show off the bevelled front edge of boards (why bevelled?). so if anyone does laser cut perspex I'd be interested
Richard

[Robert Liesenfeld]

I have a large laser cutter (ThunderLaser MARS 130); if someone were to come up with a design, I could do a small run of cases for the cost of materials and shipping.  The catch is that I'm in the US, so shipping to the UK might not make this the most attractive option.

-Rob

On Fri, Mar 30, 2018 at 12:42 PM, Richard Deane <rwd...@gmail.com> wrote:

I'm building a pro at present, love a case , transparent, to show off the bevelled front edge of boards (why bevelled?). so if anyone does laser cut perspex I'd be interested
Richard

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[Cube Central]

I would definitely buy a couple of these transparent cases, especially if they had hookups for external ports!  Unfortunately I have no experience with designing such a thing.  I hope someone takes up the challenge!

    Randal   (at CubeCentral)

On Friday, March 30, 2018 at 2:05:28 PM UTC-6, Robert Liesenfeld wrote:

I have a large laser cutter (ThunderLaser MARS 130); if someone were to come up with a design, I could do a small run of cases for the cost of materials and shipping.  The catch is that I'm in the US, so shipping to the UK might not make this the most attractive option.

-Rob

[Spencer Owen]

A while ago I built a scaled down version of Orac from Blakes 7 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Characters_of_Blake%27s_7#Orac).  It turns out that this actually fits the RC2014 Pro pretty well :-)

​

I've not got any plans to make it commercially available though.  Just wanted to share it here for those that remember Blakes 7 :-)

Cheers

Spencer

On 30 March 2018 at 16:29, Andrew Instone-Cowie <and...@datagram.co.uk> wrote:

Can anyone recommend a suitable case for a Pro? Not the backplane cases, but something to house the whole thing and keep the dust off?

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[Robert Liesenfeld]

Spent a bit of time noodling about this, and came up with a design for the Backplane 8.  I have a Pro backplane kit that I just haven't found time to assemble yet, so a Pro version of this case is definitely in the cards.  I've attached a screenshot and a render of the CAD design, as I haven't actually cut this out of plastic on my laser cutter yet.  It's meant to be cut out of clear 1/8" thick acrylic and glued together, except for the top which rests in cutouts in the side panels; a hinge would be trivial to add.  Before I ruin some perfectly good acrylic sheet, I'd like to hear whatever feedback folks might have.  

• How much clearance over the top of the cards should there be?  I just rounded up to the nearest inch, so right now there's very little indeed (a little over 1/16").  Probably the standard CF card needs more clearance at least, are there other cards I should consider?
• Would you like to see more ventilation holes?  Fewer?
• Cutouts for DB9, audio jack, or other connectors, or holes for LEDs?
• Speaker mounting holes and a grille?  Not sure how many folks have the sound card.
• Cutouts to pass cables (such as the FTDI)?
• Anything else I'm not considering?

I probably would not open a Tindie store for this, but rather batch up interest here on the mailing list and do a single run for the cost of materials and shipping.  My day job consumes enough time that I can't commit to any kind of regular orders.

Spencer-  Your Orac case looks fantastic!  I remember watching Blake's 7 on PBS here in the states as a kid, usually far past my bedtime.  The ship was so much cooler looking than the Enterprise...

-Rob

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[Eric Matecki]

A lot of boards have pins/connectors on the top, so there should definitively be more space on the top.

These includes, from memory, the digital input and output boards, the joystick board, the IDE boards.

I guess the SIO/2 pins on the slanted front, once connected, also reach over the top of the board.

[Andrew Instone-Cowie]

Looks nice. On a Pro, the boards with dual row headers (for the expanded bus pins) sit a little higher than boards with single row headers. The top of the boards are approx 60mm above the top face of the backplane on mine, and the CF card is higher, about 65mm. I forgot to measure how far above the top of the board the FTDI connector protrudes when plugged onto the angled header on the SIO/2 board... The Pi console board may also need cables coming off upwards.

Andrew

[CubeCentral]

I would personally like to see some additional cutouts available so that one might "jumper" the FTDI connector (for instance) to a "port" on the back. This way a cable could be plugged into this port rather than being run inside and onto the connector on the board.

This would potentially apply to several other ports, but am unsure how something like the HDMI connector on the Pi Zero Module would work. Additionally, this invariably leads to attempting to provide ports for all possible configurations, which is a problem. I am left wondering if perhaps a "port slot" running the entire length of the case (on the back) might enable folks to install a piece of wood, or some other material easy to customize. This way the wood plate could be customized to have these ports, rather than attempting to provide for all possibilities. This might even work for things like the power connector barrel jack. This 'wood plate' could be affixed using screws to the case if a beveled cutout was provided.

Rob, overall, your design is *wonderful* and very well done. I am extremely impressed and would gladly invest in a pair of these. I have no talent for things like this, so please take my suggestions with a grain of salt! Thank you so very much for coming up with this!

-Randal (at CubeCentral)

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[Steve Cousins]

Looks like you need at least 10mm (nearly 1/2 inch) above for the SIO card's FTDI lead.

Having exchanged a few messages with others previously regarding connector positions, I'm now sold on the idea that external access/connection should be on the back edge wherever possible.

As a result I feel the back of the case needs to be fairly open. 

If this is the done then I would not have ventilation at the top as this could easily allow foreign objects to fall onto the precious RC2014. You know us techie types aren't the tidiest sorts so things will get piled on top of the case etc.

My wish list includes a backplane with power connector on the rear. In the interests of making a cased RC look really 'clean', I'd also quite like on/off and reset on the back. 

I'd prefer not to have cut-outs on the front, but can see the existing reset button is an issue. I would vote for enforcing the mounting of a reset button on the back with a couple of wires to the backplane, just to avoid the cut-out.

With a nice looking transparent case a digital output module with LEDs (lots of LEDs!) somehow mounted along the front would really be great.

Nice Orac case Spencer. Back in the day I really like that program. Hollywood remake anyone?

Steve

[Spencer Owen]

In it's earliest incarnation, my RC2014 sat in a metal box with the appropriate switches and connectors on the back of it. Most of these were wired in via a connector on the backplane and with the power & FTDI being presented on a little custom circuit board.

Food for thought?

Spencer 

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[Robert Liesenfeld]

Great feedback, everyone, giving me lots of ideas for the Pro case.  I went ahead and cut out my existing design for the Backplane 8, as I find I learn more from holding a prototype in my hands than I do from staring at concept drawings and CAD.  As I anticipated, I learned a few things about the design's pros and cons:

• Laser cuts in thicker material (this is .177" thick acyrlic) have a "draft" or slight angle on the cut sides; this is an artifact of the laser focus, which starts comparatively wide, comes to a focus point, and widens again as you travel in the -Z direction.  This means the pieces prefer to go together in a specific orientation.  The lid, in particular, was a bit of a pain to get fitted.
• When the acrylic glue jar says "water-thin", they're not joking!  Very careful application was required, and a very, very small amount makes a very strong joint.
• My careful positioning of the cutout for the barrel power connector was a bad idea, and a simple open slot most of the width of the case would have been a much better approach.  Getting the standoffs and screws into the floor of the case was relatively easy without the backplane board in there, but once the screws were in, I couldn't "hinge" the power connector into its cutout.  Some very careful wiggling and cursing was required to get the board in place.
• The "cable door" concept - sort of a comb-shaped rectangle of acrylic held on by bolts and nuts - has promise, but isn't quite useful yet.

More to come as I get the Pro measured and modeled in CAD.

-Rob

On Tue, Apr 10, 2018 at 5:26 AM, Spencer Owen <spe...@sowen.com> wrote:

In it's earliest incarnation, my RC2014 sat in a metal box with the appropriate switches and connectors on the back of it. Most of these were wired in via a connector on the backplane and with the power & FTDI being presented on a little custom circuit board.

Food for thought?

Spencer 

On Tue, 10 Apr 2018, 12:53 Steve Cousins, <steve...@gmail.com> wrote:

Looks like you need at least 10mm (nearly 1/2 inch) above for the SIO card's FTDI lead.

Having exchanged a few messages with others previously regarding connector positions, I'm now sold on the idea that external access/connection should be on the back edge wherever possible.

As a result I feel the back of the case needs to be fairly open. 

If this is the done then I would not have ventilation at the top as this could easily allow foreign objects to fall onto the precious RC2014. You know us techie types aren't the tidiest sorts so things will get piled on top of the case etc.

My wish list includes a backplane with power connector on the rear. In the interests of making a cased RC look really 'clean', I'd also quite like on/off and reset on the back. 

I'd prefer not to have cut-outs on the front, but can see the existing reset button is an issue. I would vote for enforcing the mounting of a reset button on the back with a couple of wires to the backplane, just to avoid the cut-out.

With a nice looking transparent case a digital output module with LEDs (lots of LEDs!) somehow mounted along the front would really be great.

Nice Orac case Spencer. Back in the day I really like that program. Hollywood remake anyone?

Steve

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[David Brown]

I thought I'd join in the fun -- because I don't have a laser cutter, I used my 3d printer to make a tray.

I hope the attached image comes through.

[Robert Liesenfeld]

That looks great!  Nicely done!

-Rob

On Tue, Apr 10, 2018 at 11:30 AM, David Brown <d...@bithead.net> wrote:

I thought I'd join in the fun -- because I don't have a laser cutter, I used my 3d printer to make a tray.

I hope the attached image comes through.

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[Andrew Instone-Cowie]

That's looking good!

[Steve Cousins]

Nice job Rob

Looks very smart.

Steve

[Robert Liesenfeld]

Finally got back to this project and did some more CAD.  I've come up with a design that is largely similar to the other design for the Backplane 8, but with open "windows" instead of the made-to-measure ports for power and reset button etc.  This is much more flexible but of course also means the case itself has no cable retention or facility for connector mounting.

As designed, it's intended to be built up with glue and the roof/ceiling/lid to be left loose.  One could add a hinge to the lid if desired.  I plan to spec threaded standoffs for the floor, which should make it drastically easier to install the backplane once the case is glued up.  There's 5" clearance from floor to the under surface of the lid, which should be plenty for all of the existing cards that I know about, including ones with connectors which come off the angled edge of the card, or even go straight up, leaving clearance for connector and cable.

I recall a suggestion for a front panel of LEDs, which I think that could be achieved with a hand drill and some careful marking-out; but if more folks are interested, I could add laser-cut holes for LEDs, or switches, or both.

What do you think?  Are the "windows" a reasonable solution?  Anything you'd like to see that isn't here?  Can't promise I'll implement everyone's suggestions but I'd like to hear them all the same!

-Rob

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[Marco Maccaferri]

Il 27/04/2018 00:19, Robert Liesenfeld ha scritto:

> What do you think? Are the "windows" a reasonable solution?
> Anything you'd like to see that isn't here? Can't promise I'll
> implement everyone's suggestions but I'd like to hear them all the
> same!

Maybe I don't have the correct perspective but isn't the "back" window a
bit too high ? Assuming the "front" is where the backplane buttons and
switches are located and the "back" where is the rounded corner of the
boards. Some boards have connectors on that side and plugging them seems
a bit difficult. Maybe a window the same high of the board would be better ?

Also, do you have plans to add something to hold the boards in place ?
The connectors are not very stable and boards tends to bend when
plugging cables or moving things around with the risk of short circuits.
The standard layout boards have a hole for that but I never saw someone
using it. Also a bit of complication may come with the different
right-angled connectors that makes the boards not all aligned the same.

Anyway, looks good to me, good work!

Best regards,
Marco.

[Richard Deane]

Certainly card stabilisation is useful, the battery contact on my rtc was in danger of touching next board bottom pins but for inelegant duck tape insulator.
Richard

[David Hardingham]

Count me in when someone wants to sell some of these. Obviously, the case needs to be tall enough for the CF card module, and probably a little taller for an SIO board with an FDDI cable attached. I have both a backplane-8 model and a backplane pro model, but only the older one is working. Lots more soldering to do. Really enjoying owning a modular 8-bit computer. The Z80 had always been one of my favourite CPUs. I was never too keen on 8" floppies, so I won't be recreating some of the early Z80-based systems!

David

[Scott Lawrence]

I just realized... i have access to a Glowforge... I should totally build up an acrylic case for mine!

-s 

On Fri, Apr 27, 2018 at 2:35 PM, David Hardingham <dhardi...@gmail.com> wrote:

Count me in when someone wants to sell some of these. Obviously, the case needs to be tall enough for the CF card module, and probably a little taller for an SIO board with an FDDI cable attached. I have both a backplane-8 model and a backplane pro model, but only the older one is working. Lots more soldering to do. Really enjoying owning a modular 8-bit computer. The Z80 had always been one of my favourite CPUs. I was never too keen on 8" floppies, so I won't be recreating some of the early Z80-based systems!

David

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[Cube Central]

Count me in for at least one of these.  Of course, this may assume that I stop tinkering with mine long enough to wrap a case around it.  Currently I am swapping boards so often, it wouldn't be wise to enclose it.  But that doesn't change the fact that I still want one!

    -Randal   (at CubeCentral)