Enclosure...

For other supported Arduino products from Adafruit: Shields, accessories, etc.

Moderators: adafruit_support_bill, adafruit

Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.
Locked
unkiealex
 
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Feb 19, 2014 11:48 am

Enclosure...

Post by unkiealex »

I recently purchased 4 of the white Arduino enclosures for prototyping a project I've been contracted to design. They are nicely made and reasonably priced. I also purchased your 2 wire 16 * 2 LCD shield kit. Unfortunately, after I built one of the displays, I found that not only wouldn't it mount (can't get the provided screws through the daughter board and the display) but the daughter board was about 1/8 taller than the display and hit the threaded insert stanchion!

If the box where a hair taller and the stanchion moved up a hair, the whole package could be mounted with slightly longer screws and a nylon washer between the display and daughter board.

It would also be nice to dimple the inside of the case, to indicate where the buttons for the display module would poke through to allow for accurate drilling.

It looks like replacing the buttons on the display module with the #1490 Tactile Switch Buttons (6mm tall) from Adafruit would make them tall enough to poke out of the case slightly and allow them to be pressed.

Also the punched end-plate for the box isn't big enough for an Arduino Ethernet (the single board, not the Ethernet shield). The plastic is easily worked but it would make sense to make the USB connector punch-out a bit bigger to accommodate the RJ-45 connector as well.

Am I the only one who's slightly frustrated with the lack of quality cases and finishing product for the Arduino universe? It seems that everyone is trying to cobble together a suitable case for the finished project. And ther are some beautiful examples out there. Unfortunately, I don't have access to a wood or machine shop, nor a 3D printer, so I have to rely on commercial products. The Adafruit enclosure is a good first start and with a couple of minor tweaks I think it would be ideal.

User avatar
adafruit_support_rick
 
Posts: 35092
Joined: Tue Mar 15, 2011 11:42 am

Re: Enclosure...

Post by adafruit_support_rick »

Thanks for the thoughtful comments. I'll pass them along to the product development team :D

adafruit
 
Posts: 12151
Joined: Thu Apr 06, 2006 4:21 pm

Re: Enclosure...

Post by adafruit »

Part of the reason there's not a lot of Arduino cases is that every arduino project is different and there are hundreds of shields and add-ons! :mrgreen:

unkiealex
 
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Feb 19, 2014 11:48 am

Re: Enclosure...

Post by unkiealex »

True, there are a lot of different projects but your case is a great start. Given that a lot of these projects have displays, and considering that many of those probably have the display controller board and buttons, it would be nice if the case fit those and allowed access to the buttons.

Obviously there's no such thing as a "universal" enclosure but besides what I've already mentioned some of the following would be nice too (as long as someone is listening!):

1) more space for custom boards
2) nicer inserts for the display slots (maybe color matched)
3) larger display slots for the larger displays.
4) wall mounting options, say keyhole slots or attachable tabs
5) plugs for the screw holes

I'm surprised that someone like Pac-Tec hasn't come out with something, but I was quite pleased to see that Adafruit had birthed one!

Thanks again...

Locked
Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.

Return to “Other Arduino products from Adafruit”