Housing your work--project enclosures

[jukingeo]

Hello all,

While playing around with my Prop-2 and my RC-4 boards I was figuring out a nice way to enclose everything to make it safe and look good.

Since I have two RC-4 boards I figured I would start there.   It would seem to make sense to have the Prop 2 located in one enclosure, one that I can open up and easily hook my computer up to the Prop 2 to make changes.   Then I would have a serial linking cable go to another enclosure where the RC-4s are in.   (I think I saw someone somewhere use an XLR cable for this). This enclosure would have standard Edison sockets and pretty much would look like an outlet box.

So why not use an outlet box?   Well, two reasons:

1) There isn't a lot of room to work with in an electrical box...even the deep ones (I have large hands too).
2) I prefer a plastic box because it is easier to drill and naturally protects against shocks.  Plastic Electrical boxes are just butt ugly, however some are pretty large.

I have seen some of the custom jobs here and some enclosure recommendations and website links, however, those sites are charging upwards of $30 PER enclosure.   That is a far cry from the normal few bucks you spend on a standard electrical box.

So what I am looking for is something that can take about 4 duplex outlets, will hold two RC-4's, has enough room to work with, isn't butt ugly, and finally is cheaper than $10 a box.

Finally, in regards to using an XLR cable to link the Prop-2 section with the RC-4 section, what would be the theoretical limit as to how long I can make that cable.   Obviously I would be using a shielded XLR cable (standard microphone cable).

Any suggestions?

[Caretaker.CCI]

Jukingeo:

I have a number of plastic enclosures that I can provide for a reasonable price. They are perfect for what you are looking to do. They will hold 4-duplex outlets, have enough room for several FC4/RC4's  and you could probably squeeze a power supply in as well. If you are interested, we could also talk about connector options and machining the holes for the receptacles (or other devices). I think I have about 50 (give or take 10) of these enclosures. My plan was to machine them with appropriate openings and offer them as complete units for people who didn't want to build the enclosure themselves but I haven't had much spare time lately.

I'm off today so I will spend some time this morning taking pictures of what I have and what can be accomplished. I will post the pictures in a future thread. Please feel free to contact me at my email address below.


Greg Lewis
Caretaker.CCI@sbcglobal.net

[Caretaker.CCI]

Here are some pictures...