Unfortunately, Protocase can't supply proper heat sink as we might wish.
Best regards, Andrey Sviyazov.
2012/11/12 Alexander Chemeris alexander.chemeris@gmail.com
On Thu, Nov 8, 2012 at 11:30 PM, Darby darbysgoodies@gmail.com wrote:
I'm not sure whether you actually need a 3D design here? As I see it, you select a proper existing case and just design front/rear panels and drilling pattern for mounting. I may be wrong, though - I've never done this before. I just worry that a fully custom case could be too expensive in small quantities.
Im sure you could use a preexisting design, and just punch some holes in the sides for convection cooling, then punch some holes in the back to accommodate power & cabling, and use some motherboard standoffs that would keep the board mounted in place on the enclosure floor.
Yes, I was looking for something like that - simple and inexpensive. It would be a shame if a case cost a considerable part of the thing.
I was thinking more along the lines of stamped/bent sheet metal, some lightpipes (plexyglass or polycarbonate) in the front so youve got visibility of the lights in the front & some countersunk holes on the sides to keep the 2 C shaped (or L shaped would work well too? -Which might be a better implementation for mounting purposes if youre going with lightpipes as opposed to holes in the case for lights) pieces bolted together & a powdercoated or painted finish?
For lab version we could use 3-LED columns, like the ones we used in UmTRXv1: http://wiki.umtrx.googlecode.com/hg/images/umtrxv1/UmTRX-top.jpg UmTRXv2 has places to colder them instead of SMD LEDs: http://wiki.umtrx.googlecode.com/hg/images/umtrxv2/UmTRXv2.jpg In this case light-pipes are not needed and we could just drill holes at the front panel.
I have no preference between U/C, L or slide-in cases. Anything which is easy to handle, inexpensive and looks good is fine.
I found some design tools at protocase, that it looks as though will pushout 3d cad files as deliverables, but looking thru the project files -I cant seem to find anything that would give me specifics on distances between the mounting holes from each other's centerpoints & how wide these holes are, If someone can point me to a place where I can find this -Ill take a stab at case design when Ive got some free time... =)
No idea, sorry. I think you'd best contact Protocase with this uestion
- I think they should be interested in supporting potential customers.
On a side note, They also have an extruded aluminum offering (http://www.protocase.com/products/index.php?e=Aluminum) where the sides are the same between the left & the right, with a fixed height of 1.72" (43.688mm). For mounting they use some internal channels that the board will slide into (as opposed to motherboard standoffs as suggested above) then they use a sheetmetal bridge for the top & bottom to determine the width & then sheetmetal on front & back as well -Depending on quantity, they might be willing to sell lengths (like say 10 or 20ft at a time) that your people could cut to size & fabricate their own top/bottom/front/back panels?
Just a thought...
Hum, this looks interesting. Though we need something ready, i.e. already cut and with ready-to-use front/back panels.
I wonder how much would it cost to get cases shipped from them to Europe. For, say, 20-50pcs.
-- Regards, Alexander Chemeris. CEO, Fairwaves LLC / ООО УмРадио http://fairwaves.ru