EEVblog
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ก.พ. 2025
- Dave shows some techniques on how to build and mount usable PCB based front panels user interfaces with LCD displays and push buttons and capacitive touch buttons onto small cheap extruded aluminium enclosures.
Also a discussion of mounting TO-220 package to such cases to use the case as a heatsink, and using isolated internal heatsinks.
In particular for the µSupply project. This is Part 14 of that series.
The uCalc project gets another look in, and does the Sharp Memory dot matrix LCD.
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Hey Dave, I really wished you would build and design more on your channel, this type of content is great. I still love your teardowms but I'd really love to see something built, from scratch.
+CreativeType AvE is building some spectacular lighting appliance from ground, maybe you will dig it...
NGC1433
Yeah I've been watching it, he's a fantastic guy. I live just down the bend from him.
This is a dangerous video Dave.. I spent waaaay too much time on AliExpress after this looking at cases ;)
By sheer coincidence, I am in Shenzhen and visited the Huaqiangbei markets looking specifically for these enclosures for a production of some automotive equipment. They have a huge selection of sizes and types as Dave describes. And the prices are insanely cheap.
I love these videos - thanks so much Dave for passing on your design experience to us beginners
Extremely good. Inspiring. Truly!
Most of electronic projects start with looking an empty instrument case like this, and working out what would go in there.
Great video!
I've really missed this 'product development' type videos - I hope you get to doing some more of them again.
Hammond do some nice (but expensive) extruded cases with plastic end bezels which nicely hide the edge of your PCB front panel - 1455 series
Yeah, have used them before, they are nice. If you get a fully routed front panel board then no need nice to hide the edges though, it looks pretty good anyway.
If you want less fiberglass visible then you can use a 0.5mm PCB also.
Some manufacturers do nice silicone rubber end boots too, then no need for rubber feet.
Jeremy Abel Maybe in the US market, but to my UK eyes they look like a 1970s cassette player I'm afraid.
I'm using a Hammond 1455T2201BK which has the plastic end bezels, very neat. However well routed FR4 is, the edges always look a bit crusty. Maybe fine on a cheap product but not something $100-200. The bezels act as feet, protective bumpers and trim to hide the crusties. Sometimes spending a few cents on trim can add dollars to a product's perceived value. Anyway this is a bit complicated for YT, so I'm heading over to the EEVBlog forum!
Jeremy Abel
Holy Atari 2600 batman!
I enjoyed this video, Dave. Very informative. I like that a lot of those Chinese suppliers actually have fairly thorough dimensional drawings in .PDF for their aluminum cases. Thumbs up!
Glad to see another uSupply video!
this is great. i love how dave is so excited about this case
Looking forward to more of these videos dave! very interesting to a beginner.
Great video. I'm just working on a small batch profile case device and i got some ideas. I exchanged a rotary encoder to rocker switch and saved a lot of space and mounting time. Thanks man!
I love it when a case comes together ;-)
On the idea of attaching the TO device to the case, you can use a PEM-stud to reduce the visibility of the hardware on the outside. For that case the PEM would have to be black anodized as well to make is nearly invisible.
Could you possibly go into a little further detail on how the capacitive buttons work and how they were printed direct onto PCB? They look great but I can't work out what you did there :) Cheers Dave.
Some great tips there Dave. The panel ends can be 3D printed with a bit of patience. This allows many attempts to get panel mount devices just right.
You should do a mechanical design contest for your uCurrent proyect enclosing. You´ll just have to say the basis like material, dimmensions, etc. I bet there are a lot of CAD users that would love to help you on that!
Actually you can use some insulating thermal material between the TO-220 and the casing, insulating the casing but still sinking the heat away from the power transistor.
I saw them mostly on those cheap car amplifiers, inverters etc. They're useful when you have components that dissipate a lot of heat, so you can use it as a heatsink
BY HIS NOODLY APPENDAGE! THE µSupply LIVES!?
Just like Duke Nukem
pbs.twimg.com/media/BdAfc3HIUAAfYiD.jpg
EEVblog wat
+EEVblog Terrible picture. However, once I finish designing the front panel, how do I get a proper one made? You know, with writing on, holes and stuff?
+Ernst Stavro Blofeld I know its a loong time ago, but in Germany there is a company named Schaeffer AG and they sell front panels properly maschiened. They arent too expensive, about 40-50€ a normal one if I remember correctly
Felix Hil Excellent. Precise and to the point. Exactly what I was looking for. I like that! Well done Felix.
Thank you a bloody lot.
Adding to my enclosure playlist
EEVblog Please, oh please bring this project back to life! :D
I think the best way for small PSU is to add encoder with switch instead of few switches or few potentiometers.
Click>set mode for volt>second click set mode for amp>rotating to set volt/amp>long press to set choosed parameters and quit setting mode.
Everything done by one knob!
Like those enclosures! very handy.
You should do a video on how to mount screens, buttons and connectors to these project boxes.
Aluminium backplate of this type of cases with cheap thermal paste is good as radiator, a few 78xx can be mounted like that with no drama.
You could use the board mount rockers and the lcd together. Center the LCD and rockers either side, and put the posts above the rockers.
I just noticed that your 18650 battery is a 'Trustfire'. DO NOT USE IT! Unless you buy genuine new OEM cells (Panasonic/LG/Sanyo, check out Orbtronic), the best way to get 18650 batteries is from old (or new) laptop batteries, simply because they are genuine batteries. Pretty much all of the eBay batteries (especially ones with 'fire' in the name) are from C-grade recovered cells and some have been found to have smaller batteries stuffed inside them with filler around them.
Also you can use a sheet metal laser cutting machine to form a flatted part of your chassis then a bending machine will form your chassis according to your dimensions, and a couple of screws in each side will make it rigid enough for handling. Its a very accurate way to have a perfect alignment between different internal parts and a good look of your product. The most advantage thing of this procedure that you are going to have a product with too much less weight than the extruded aluminum chassis.
I planned on building my own power supply based on your µSupply. When I searched for Cases and UI elements I was a bit surprised: Most cases that suit my needs are relatively expensive ($35-$150). Also I didn't find too many knob caps, I'm looking for either wide, flat "dials" with a thumb indentation or "typical modern scope knobs" with rubber surface. Does anyone know sources?
where did you order them? link?
Excellent video
Loved the rocker.
Dave where did you get the rule you are using, i really like that?
I have an external hard drive cage with one of those aluminum(?) enclosures, works great, the case acts as a pretty good heat sink.
Hey dave, could you start posting some links to where you can get some of the unique stuff? Like to that rocker switch thing. I'm still new to electronics and don't exactly know what the "formal" names of some of the unique stuff is. It would be really helpful to see a digikey link or something.
You can always put the output plugs to the back (like Manson PSU early models) and have room for nice adjustable knobs in front. As this will sit freely on the desk anyway (not ducted away in a shelf), there would be no hassle to access the back of the box to change cables. Or you could have cables from back coming out and from those cables you connect to your project. Kind of like a remote output. I think that if you have all cables from the back, you will have more aesthetic design to the device. Do some sketches ;)
oh ha, 8 years later ... still hunting for that very little rocker switch with a push button shown around th-cam.com/video/wg_J9WElvBY/w-d-xo.html - anyone know where to get them? thanks!
Hey Dave, I think I wouldn't mount buttons below the LCD: Too close to the bottom edge and hard to reach/operate. I'd go for a multi-purpose turn/push-knob left or right from the display. But then you'd probably need a bigger display to show the different options/actions the user may chose.
Also: Is there enough distance between the banana plug posts and the case? It looked to me like at least the nuts on those plugs in particular would touch the top/bottom of the case... Anyway, nice video! I'm already waiting for more µSupply!
Keep in mind Dave will most likely be putting rubber feet on the bottom of the case. That will raise it up quite a bit. Probably close to 1/2" or 13mm.
Where can I get this little nice dot-matrix LCD from? Could't find it on the sharp Website. Does someone knows a source or the part number?
Thanks Dave. That's a nice alumin(um) case.
which is the cheapest & easiest way to self cut holes & squares out of those metal cases?
Any links to the supplier for the cases you can post.
I know these sort of enclosures, as we used them a lot when i worked in my former PCB designer job for prototypes to get something going....but i do not use them, as they are not big enough to fit some tubes inside ;)
One question. Where did you get that ruler? Seems very useful for PCB design.
Hi Dave,
Whats the measuring thing?
Where can I get one?
Hey Dave, did you ever use a soap case for prototyping? :D
For the µSupply I like the silk screen capacitive buttons, but off to the side of the display rather than underneath. Having any button interface under the display would limit functionality. Access would be too tight and fingers would get in the way of the display.
I would also give serious thought to battery access. I would like to see access to the batter via the back panel, but ideally without the need to remove screws. So some sort of plastic latch cover similar to remote controls. This might not be possible, but deserves considerable thought. Worst case is the operator can remove the 4 back screws and have access to the battery, which requires it to be mounted 90 degrees of the opening.
These things are often designed with nice round numbers in imperial measurement that come across as arbitrary to us metric people.
I was working on a PCB front pannel but got stuck with placing the rotary knobs in a proper way. Any nice trick with that?
I've routed out a big square in the board and soldered the encoder from the rear side.
What's alyaminium? Is that an alloy with aluminum?
Do you have to debounce these buttons for mechanical bouncing?
how radiator inside case can be more efficient than case?
:D
The case is quite thin so the amount of metal directly attached to the tab of the component wouldn't be as much as if it's attached to a meaty hink sink.
donpalmera
in sealed case without external airflow with time->inf. temp. of heat sink (inside case) will be higher then case temp. simply thermodynamic rolls..
Bastek Master
That could well be the case. I think to be sure someone would actually need to test it.
An internal heaksink is much meatier and has greater efficiency of surface area compared to the thin flat case in terms of getting heat away from the die. Of course you'd want vent holes for anything serious. And as I mentioned in the annotation you can also bolt an internal heatsink to the top of the case giving best of both words.
donpalmera to transfer thermal energy you need temperature difference. there is no question but that.
heat sink temp. >aier in case temp. > case temp. > environment temp.
in STEADY STATE
What you think is the best way to operate numerous capacitive touch buttons?
make the base board have two pieces that are thin and with no stopmask that goes through the 2 3-4mm holes in the LCD. Then you can also get mechanical mounting of the LCD and make assembly easier
Can you post where to get them?
Dave that is genius!
Where did you order them from?
Have a link to the seller you bought them from?
EEVblog
No link to the cases in the notes WTF!
Newhaven display ?! Where do you live ?
Not very specific I'm afraid, and unless I missed it none of the design tools used for the front panel were detailed?
A heatsink inside the metal housing will not work unless there are adequate ventilation slots or what have you for air to get inside.
Dave on the one you like, what to watch out is the anodising quality, doesn't look very good...
that one piece look remarkably similar to the casing of an old external hard drive that i had..
100th episode: your voice is waay deeper then this. Reverse Puberty
Heat sinking components to metal case is more efficient than heat sinking to air inside same case. Often superior to ventilated metal case as well. Been there, done that, got the T-Shirt too.
How did you make the capacitive buttons of your uCalc? Is it like 2 traces near each other?
Maybe Dave will chime in on his process, but here is a great reference from TI that shows how to design both capacitive touch buttons and capacitive touch sliders for TI MCUs (Which support CapSense).
www.ti.com/lit/an/slaa576/slaa576.pdf
And here's one from Atmel that appears to be a bit more thorough.
www.atmel.com/images/doc10752.pdf
@@Oshbotscom ti page no longer available.
Some really good stuff on ebay too, if you don't want to deal with Aliexpress/china.
A lot of stuff on eBay (for the lower prices) come from China or the likes also, but the added benefit of more buyer protection of course.
Yeah, but I like Aliexpress where I'm buying direct from the manufacturer. Not always the case, but in this case it was, pun intended.
EEVblog I have found Aliexpress to be very good in terms of reliability and shipping, and the price is generally better than eBay.
alieexpress is pretty much the same as eBay, but without the 10% eBay fee
21:25 those switch from ALPS SLLB5 SERIES?
These are nice cases, sadly I need something bigger.
what ever happened with the uCalc?
A loaf pan with a lid is almost better than a hammond case and cheaper too.
µSupply on Kickstarter?, I'm waiting for it ...
Was watching in 1080P; but had to turn off the computer and the CenturyLink ADSL Router/Modem/SW to reset and/or refresh the connection ! And was able to finish watching another great EEVblog ! Do you have a server or are you at the mercy of TH-cam and/or The Cloud ? Maybe I should ping Sidney from this extra-terrestrial friendly state in the USA. Thankyou tjl Sent by Win7Pro64 w/ADSL
Actually I prefera a properly maschiened Aluminium frontpanel, and for my next project, which will be a PSU by the way, Im planning to use Cherry Switches... So Im going to print the keys myself and buy a aluminium frontpanel.
The information content is great, but is it necessary to explain everything 2-3 times within the same video? If I need to hear it again, I can rewind...
it's great news these alu cases are getting really cheap, though I'm always a bit worried the Chinese put their waste uranium in it or something..
I can't imagine that mounting devices onto the case is a bad thermal conductor.. manufacturers of (for example) 230v car inverters do this all the time dissipating a lot of heat to the outside world.
Seems a little complicated. Why not buy the entire product?
love the product love even more the use of the word aluminium... the accent and the word make me smile. anyway, seems like a dope job box.id like a large one.... ill be shopping =] thanks for the vid.
good video :)
I'm absolutely don't like the idea about ALUMINIUM screws. I thought that ordinary steel screws can be anodized in any colour as well.
have you had luck with aliexpress?
Dave I watched your latest telecast and saw you liked u supply parts. I found some mini 2mm banana jack and binding post. I thought you be interested in there on ebay and the seller is "danspeed-express"
we are very good at custom process as the video you need . ^_^ ^_^
Bob *is* my uncle.
8 mins in and still no talk of the front panel lol...
You did not provide a Link to these Cases. Don't talk up an item and not give a source where it an be attain. I'd Unsubscribed you're channel for the mistake.
Hoping you start to make simple useful circuit's like ur LED lithium ion battery-meter. I'm no electronic engineer but i'm very interested in circuit design. Hoping you make cool small projects to attract a very novice demographic to attract to electronic engineering/design. Be the Neil DeGrass Tyson of Electronic Engineering!
Awesome video's btw lol watched them everyday since i found this channel a couple weeks ago!
Hobo Maximus
Only many hundreds to go :->
swweeeet. Excited!
µCalc!
AliExpress has the most cheap products. but not everything is good or working.
Chinesse case ... beauuuuuutyyyy
Hi all
chinarf could do these jobbies if needed I would think.
Can't find any others at this time of night.
Hope that helps.
Austraya
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ww
alibaba :D
There is NO "I" before the "U" in ALUMINUM! It is NOT AL-U-MIN-EEE-UM. How did you guys EVER get started on that nonsense?
+Gary Kindt Sorry, it's AL-U-MIN-EEE-UM.
+Gary Kindt I tend to agree with Vladimir Nicolici. It's the same story as Wolfram vs Tungsten: american scientists fighting with european scientists about the name. Finally they got to a BARGAIN. Yes, BARGAIN!
Stupid kids! :)
Yes it is.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium
iuries
No... haven't you heard? It called "a deal" now. An "amazing deal", in fact.
Hi, not ridicoulous cheap, thanks to mondialism but less job in our countries and less money in our societies and more money for banksters :|