Probox Gl
Jamey Saldana
I use Probox because of the cant inserts. This allows for a lot of changes and it allows me to use fins with built in cant, but not use the cant they have. I have a couple of short wide boards that I can use keel fins in and have no cant, then change back to other fins and have cant. I also like to change cant in the rear fins in a quad setup to go from zero to 4 degrees.
Too true. I think the main reason to use any fin system other than one of the FCS configurations or Futures (especially) is if somebody is getting custom fins or is making custom fins. And hardly any board builders are doing that, let alone the mainstay industry types.
This news from FS has me holding on tighter to the 3 rail boxes I still have left, since I have had to route out one box after this occurred, when I ran someone down who had the temerity to drop in on me, and I will keep this board until I can no longer surf.
I am considering making a jig to precisely drill and tap the existing proboxes and inserts for more grub screws to spread their load across more of the fin and finbox. Not sure if i would have gone with this system had I been aware of this potential weakness beforehand.
I do like the adjustability, but honestly I am sticking most fins in the 8 degree inserts, and fins all the way back, and now modifying fins to overhang the back of the box further and extending the tab thus using the full receptacle for the fin base.
I was going to design and build something like the Kreg pocket screw jig for drilling new grub screw holes through the probox and inserts, and then precisely tapping these holes for grub screws, perhaps of smaller diameter than the standard. I have sucesfully cast threads around fine thread small metric SS screws in epoxy, but there is no wiggle room and cross threading the screws is too easy and stripping the fine threads using too much torque was also too easy. But the 10-24 grub screw threads are coarse and much further apart in comparison to m4.
The probox center fin box grub screws are weirdly angled, pressing into the middle of the fin tab at more of a 45 degree angle. It could have been designed so there would be more material between tab recess and grub screw for greater strength, but was not. Custom fins for center probox need the grub screw Receptacle flat be up higher on the fin tab.
I was always nervous about the amount of material left over the grub screws after sanding. I never had one fail but I was always paranoid that it would because the walls of the box are thinner and have less threaded area in support of the grub screw - due to the use of the inserts. As it turns out, I almost never took advantage of the cant adjustments except when I was swapping fin setups entirely to go from a quad to a twinzer.
One can actually submerge proboxes slightly if they razor the tabs a bit so the box sits deeper in the board as resin cures. Then capping them less cloth need be sanded off to get it flush, then the inserts sit a bit recessed. Hard to get the cloth over the area between grub screw hole and insert though for adding strength to that area.
My Quad boxes which I either did not route deep enough or sanded the bottoms of the probox a smidge or both, got not only the lead weights, but a wood bar across both and then bricks for even more weight, as I could see more resin bulge out the sides with more downward pressure. Dry, I could not see if the box tabs were flush on the lam, but the resin bulging out the sides with more downward pressure indicated I needed to compress the 6 oz or 7.5 oz football patches I used in the routed hole under the Probox.
If I ever make another board with multifins, I Would go probably go for gearbox, over futures or fcs, assuming I could not get probox anymore and keep having issues with the grub screw getting ripped out.
A quick update: I got my shipment from FS, and it turned out they did have some white rail boxes in, but only with blue 0 degree inserts. I went through my entire probox related stuff and found that I have an overabundance of blue inserts, and a shortage of black.
Where are you located? I have 7 proboxes in total. One contains my backup set, one is for general usage and 5 are unused. Complete including the original box. If you're in the US you can have one for the price of shipping.
Do you still have the Proboxes. I'm interested - I've had good look with the two I currently have. I've been using their SATA multiplexer card - before that the Proboxes kept dropping off when I was using Rosewill cards
I just got sick of the Mediasonic boxes randomly dropping drives (USB-C 10Gbit and USB-A 5Gbit) and occasionally corrupting partitions. Lucky I know how to recover partitions... comes in handy from having worked for EMC and NetApp for half my IT career...
I just upgraded this week to Silverstone DS380 8 bay backplane SFF case with 8088 to 8087 PCI bracket and LSI 9201 16E SAS/SATA HBA in my NUC Extreme. Just moved the drives over no problem... quite a bit faster and more reliable already!
regarding power:
to use a PSU without a motherboard An "ATX Jumpstarter" AKA an ATX connector that connects Pin 14 to ground.
you can also tie this to a power switch but it must be a latching type (most cases have push button style power buttons)
if you want a little future expandability (and the ability to use less and longer cables) you can replace the SAS breakout brackets with a SAS expander. my personal pick would be the AEC-82885T (although that uses Mini-SAS HD connectors, 8643+8644).
this would allow you to use SATA disks using longer cables (SATA cables use a lower signaling voltage) and allow you to connect just one SAS cable to each JBOD. (yes, you are connecting 8 disks using one 4 lane 6Gb or 12Gb link, but it's barely noticeable for spinning drives)
Pro box makes a very nice box, they put alot of engineering into them! They are made in texas and used to talk to the reps frequently when I did spl comp's. They are pricey but they fit perfect and sound badass.
a friend of mine tested a standard ported box for his single cab sierra against a probox with the same measurements, both times use a Kicker CVX 10" and the same amp for both and the difference in sound was crazy. The probox sounded much much better and louder! needless to say he sold the standard mdf carpeted box go with a probox
i had a fellow member build me a custom box with a square 8" L5 it hits hard and i have plenty of room he has built this box just for the silverado's its small and wow it hits so hard give him a shout and see what he can do for you his name is uncald4 (Travis) great guy good product he also ownes a sterio shop so he is very knowledgeable
Sub and box combos all depend on what you are looking to get from the system. I agree, a lot of time and engineering go into making those boxes but I made one for myself with 2 l7 kickers and I was thumping louder than others who had more speakers and more power.
I have a probox in my truck with just a 10 inch alpine s sub with kenwood 1000 watt amp which we all know that it does not have 1000 watts , anyway it sounds really good,it is a down firiing box made out of some special material i guess. The only thing i dont like about my box is that i can not put a sub with a big magnet in it.Other than that it a good box .
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