EEVblog 1537 - NEW PROJECT Enclosure Search FAIL 

Closest I can find is a PDT555 console enclosure from Ningbo Keao, but it's 300m wide. I think it's ultimately pointless to continue to search.

I now just do custom 3D printed enclosures. It was the main reason I got into 3D printing.

Being a person that cannot stick to a single hobby, I started out with buying a desktop CNC engraver. I find it rather fun to mill out my own circuit boards. Nevermind the cheap board making houses, I get to make this myself. This lead straight to a desire to have custom project enclosures, so then I designed and built my own 3D printer. Learning CAD, circuit design, and CAM programming actually lead me to a career in the company that I work at now. I always 3D print my own boxes now.

Your drawing looks like an early 1980s LED alarm clock where big red seven-segment displays would be on the sloped window. Time set, alarm, hour minute and such would be chosen with buttons on the level section.

That's called a console in my experience. Bud PC-11495 is one such. PacTec has some that are similar, but don't have the upright panel, just the sloped panel, at various angles.

I failed to find an enclosure for the PDVS2mini and ended up getting them custom CNC'd & anodised (aluminium) in China. Supplied them a simple 2D drawing and am able to order in low quantities. PS. UK costs were quoted 10x the cost.

Hi, Dave. In your Google picture search, you've found several enclosures for small display and big keypad. Maybe, if you change your 3D perspective, and swap bottom side with back side, you might find yourself having found an enclosure for big display and small keypad..

You could make something close using PCBs - do the ends in 2.4mm material with depth milling to locate pieces of PCB for the panels. Held together with lengths of threaded rod, or right-angle brackets off the internal PCB Another approach I've seen a while ago is for the top & front/rear to be made out a a sheet of ABS, scored, folded and glued with solvent cement to make 2 halves. There was a hook profile machined into the mating edges to make it snap together This looked very professional with minimal tooling. Of course folded metal is another possibility.

I have some enclosures that are similar to what you are looking for, I use them for an electronic event scoring system I built, I will reply to this comment with the URL for them in case it gets filtered, they do a few versions of the case, with and without the screen cutout, and in cream or black. I 3D print a button surround as my unit has 9 buttons on the bottom section, the screen section and bottom section have posts for PCB mounting inside. EDIT: you found them @15:40

Enclosures are so freaking expensive, it's worth it after the first couple projects just to get a metal break, tin snips, and a center punch, and watch some diy videos.

that METCASE sloped enclosure looks exactly like the Lego classic space sloping computer pieces from the 1980s!

"Console" seems to be a magic keyword. I found a few "desktop console enclosure"

You're looking for a console it seems. Good luck. We had to custom make 100% of our "consoles' for our products for 3 different companies I've worked for. Even with the companies that specialize in this stuff they all said "we don't do consoles because there are literally 10 million versions, and even if we thought we had the most common 10, we'd never sell enough"...so...yea, weldshop made them up for us.

If we were playing Pictionary I would've guessed your "Dave CAD" drawing reminds me of a vintage digital alarm clock.

Good video. I did not know what to search for in the past. Enclosure manufacturers for when you need big runs. Either way, this very need led me to build my own prototype boxes: Like everyone else, choose one of following (or all of these like I did). 1. 3d_printer + PLA_filament 2. 3d_pinter + ABS_filament + [Air filters so you don't die of long term exposure to plastics] 3. Tig_and_flux-core_Welder + Auto_darken_first_helmet 1/50000_or_faster_delay + angle_grinder + stiff_leather_jacket_and_gloves The welder was a waste for small enclosures, but I use the welder for other big enclosures like car modifying and rack server. I build my own ATX boxes too. Make sure your metals are not galvanized or you'll get sick. There are other things with welding. Welding is dangerous for most people are not physically inclined. But the savings are huge. Server racks that I need are like $1_000. I can build one for about $100 bucks now.

At 4:52 there was a bus industries SC-13101 from Newark sorta looked like what you wanted

Got into 3d printing to make enclosures for handheld electronics projects because premade enclosures were too limiting. ABS filament is available in every color you could possibly want, and modern machines make it easy to print with. Get a soldering-iron bit for heat-press inserts and learn to design with them in mind, and you can CAD up a new enclosure in minutes and have it ready to go in a few hours of print time.

Looks like Calculon's head...

I've been making electronic products for nearly twenty years - and putting the electronics in the box is often the hardest part.

I frequently fabricate similar style enclosures from sheet metal, perforate all openings and then vinyl wrap for a good finish. Vinyl wrap is so much better than paint or powder coat and can always be re wrapped if damaged. Dave, if you get stuck I can custom make you one with cutouts, although you did state no metal... (Im in Tassie)

Yes please, an update on what happened with the uPower supply!

Your Dave CAD drawing reminds me of a Wang nixie tube calculator terminal from the '60's.

That Davecad looks like it has a steep learning curve 😁😁

We have a product at work designed for a Hammond case. When we asked our Chinese manufacturer to mass produce them, we told them which holes and cutouts to laser into the Hammond cases, yet they went and designed a DLP printed enclosure, which are actually nicer than the Hammond.

Another approach could be to find an enclosure where the bottom half works as the basal platten to mount your PCB board to, then 3D print a custom top half that holds your buttons and display. Or you cold find one that has a bottom and top shell that works for holding the PCB board and buttons, then 3D print a shell that mounts on top to hold the display at the right angle.

Try the keyword "CONSOLE" for this type of enclosure. You may get more results. Or console style.

Protocase has "Custom Consolet Enclosures" that look very professional. And yes, Extruded Consolet is the way Protocase have spelled it.

I have used TAKACHI in the past, things turned out great. One that is not on your list is Protocase, they have an office in the US and Canada, used them a few times with good results.

4:30 You can make the flat side smaller if you flip it on its back.

Hi, what to do with two boxes, buy one slanted for the display, the other straight for the switches and screw them together, and the built-in battery case can be bought separately according to the type of batteries used. Or make it from the one with a large space for controls, a small one for the display and stand it vertically. I also found something very similar to what you are looking for, the display part is also tiltable, unfortunately it is large 600x250x110mm and above all insanely expensive, I also found counter boxes with a straight step, but they have the upper part lying down. Nice day 🙂T.H.Edison

...or the R-TECH 300389. That is a nice narrow handheld box. Stop it, Dave, you're going to make me order stuff I don't need!!!

When I saw the DaveCAD drawing I thought Dave's project was going for a retro enclosure to look like a scaled down TRS-80 model 3 computer for a SBC like Raspberry Pi.

Check if AvE can CNC you one.

The best part of Dave's videos is always DaveCAD😍

A rabbit hole I have been done on many occasions! Luck plays a big part :-(

might, with some bodging, be able to put a flat rectangular case on the edge of a sloped case, drill and glue...

Laser cut if from Galvanised Steel, fold it, paint or powder coat it and screw it together.

I recently tried to find one for a little project (just a mains measurement adapter) and it would have been nice to have a step of about 4-5cm at about the halwafway point lengthwise; no such luck either. :/

I love to see these projects, I build myself 19" enclosures for radio stations, if the mixing console they use don't have fader starts, so I make them tailor made. Using 1 or 2 K8055N boards and with relays for powering a light tree and stuff. And the manufacturer of these makes holes in it for LEDs etc. They are very beautiful maid. I also make pre-amplifiers with analog compressor limiter to use, because with digital equipment you always have a delay, and that is annoying for the presenters/ DJs. I love to design these, instead of doing repairs. But development isn't very cost-effective enough. So I have to do repairs also. We need to eat too. Following this one for sure for part 2. Thanks. [edit] I searched on the website where I order my enclosures, but nah, nothing there unfortunately [/edit]

i don't know if that help anything but i would use that last sloped enclosure with battery compartment and just use buttons with thick long shafts sticking out on an angle so they would be pushed from the top and would have interesting shape, possibly i would like 1cm citcle that is around 1-1,5cm high over the actuall microswitch button, could be separate piece it would look pretty interesting

i've given up on finding an off the shelf enclosure and just get a custom one 3d printed, either by myself or off china

I'd call that a console enclosure

I wanted a very similar enclosure but came up empty on the commercial market also. Ended up 3D printing one and it came out awesome. The ability to design and print enclosures was one of my main motivations to get a 3D printer. Best $200 I ever spent (+ 50 hours of modifying the design to make it work decent). 3D for the win! I'll post a photo over on the forum.

Why not get a simple rectangular box for the base and a simple sloped one for the screen, and just attach them to each other using screws or glue?

Time to get a 3D printer, I think

Create one using chatgpt-4 with openscad. All you need to do, is describe in detail, in simple English. Export to STL. 3D print it. It's that simple(assuming you are familiar with terms used in cad/plastic molding). No previous openscad modeling experience needed, except some common sense. Then print it with a run of the mill FDM printer. Can do acetone vapor polishing for a glossy finish. Been there done that. Just some thoughts 💭.

I'm pretty sure that Vero Electronics used to make these. They were in Maplin, RS (Radio Spares not Radio Shack), Farnell etc in the 1980s and 1990s. In the characteristic grey and white 2-tone scheme. Unfortunately, the oldest paper catalogue I have to hand is 2015 RS, and there isn't anything in there. Vero don't appear to make them any more.

Hi, Dave. But how can you estimate enclosure size even before project start? I often find myself in situation with my hobby projects that even if I guessed case size pretty good and everything fit there, anyway there some places where elements are toо close which makes assembly and wiring (especially wiring) pretty hard 😊. Even with 3d printer sometimes it is hard to find balance between size and components placement.

Why not just get a simple slanted enclosure and a simple flat one and stick one to the other? P.S.The stupid RU-vid comments - sometimes they just do not get registered...

Not a real subject of this video but most people don't think about enclosures of devices thrown away. I have box full of plastic parts, buttons, display windows, covers and enclosures of devices I have taken apart for parts. Some parts are really nice or really clever made and not easy to reproduce with a 3D printer or very expensive to buy. For example transparent parts or nice shiny silver knobs. I have also some nice metal enclosures from external harddrives, mutimedia equipment, settop TV-boxes, etc. You can get very professional results, great looking projects and people cannot imagine you made it yourself. Another benefit, it doesn't cost anything and you reuse stuff so better for the environment. Think about it when you need only one enclosure to house a project or prototype. Maybe is what you need already made.

If you didn’t like the angled panel proportions, could you use it ‘upside down’ I wonder

Personally, I'd go straight to 3d printing. A 1st-run of a case like this should take less than an hour to design. Of course, then you need to refine and redesign but sometimes you can get by with a bit of drilling and filing. Once you have a workflow going, it becomes second nature. It's really nice getting exactly what you want and not having to work with a not-quite-right form factor.

Enclosures are expensive and rarely fit. That's why I build my own housings. Either bend aluminum sheets or glue plastic plates together, the result pleases me again and again.

I have a sheet metal brake build project on the back burner for building my own enclosures. Not sure I could pull off something that complex but may be able to make some parts metal that could then be fitted with 3D printed parts to make the whole thing easier and more robust.

Seems like a similar form factor to some old alarm clocks, maybe salvage the case from one ?

That's kind of an old-fashioned form factor. How about a simple rectangular case with a triangular stand or a multimeter-like kickstand? Then you could use a single PCB for the display and buttons. Really depends on whether the buttons are just for setup or whether you press them more frequently.

I’ve seen alarm clocks shaped like that.

Start by defining what you actually need. If you're unsure about the details, thats fine, but some starting point with estimated dimensions must be found. The design you're aiming for is easily made in CAD in a short time and the sketch is really all that's needed to start. Depending on internal mounts needed etc. they can be designed in from the start or added later. 3D printed plastic can be treated like any other project box if printed with 100 % infill. If mass production is no concern and if you don't have special needs on the plastic used, like melting temperature, durability against chemicals or oil etc. you're pretty much set on 3D printing these days.

I found the Bud Industries SC-13100, but I'm sure even this is a bit larger than what you have in mind. EDIT: You're basically looking for an enclosure shaped like a VTech Smart Start or a Tomy Tutor Play Computer, right? I'm a huge fan of making concessions for the sake of using an off-the-shelf solution, but this sounds like a good candidate for 3D printing. I might also consider gluing up some polystyrene, but I'm not you.

Wouldn’t mind a uSupply update if there is one.

Need a Commodore PET Computer enclosure? 😁👍🏻

You did a Console in DaveCad but didnt include Console in your search terms. Weird.

OKW Enclosures has some interesting possibilities, e.g., their SMART-CONTOL and ART-CASE lines.

Yes please I'd like to know what happened to the power supply project

You are searching images in wrong way. Search for some enclosure, then click on one that is most similar to your preferred one, and then search images below right side of screen, there are showed images more similar to your selected one

There were far more options years ago, but these days you just 3D print a case to suit :) What is needed is a "how to" on designing a case for the project and adjusting it for 3D printing !

Might be an odd thought but if you can get a sloped front with a flat top and then another sloped unit that can bolt to the top might work.

The 007 series from LMB heeger in South El Monte, California makes metal enclosures that look like that.

This is what I really want an AI personal assistant for! These kinds of soul draining searches. Most of the time they will include scrolling through countless pictures and checking descriptions of potential candidates, redefining search terms, scrolling, checking ad nauseam - bread and butter for some AIs.

Half an hour with openscad and you'll have it ready for printing ;)

Why don't you just bolt on a sloped enclosure on a standard box? It would work well for a prototype, and further on, you can get someone to do it on order.

All those enclosures that were too deep and not tall enough -- a few of them looked like they'd stand up fine on their backs! Did you not consider just turning them 90 degrees?

I have a ham radio that the head unit looks similar to what you are wanting. It is the Icom IC-7100. Probably would be imposible to get this case and have it customized for what you want but you might look at it for inspiration. Howard - N0AZ

I haven't gotten into 3D printing but would be tempted to go into my workshop and throw something together out of wood. (For a one-off prototype. I'm pretty good at miniature woodworking.) Query: is wood a safe material for enclosures, or is not fire-resistant enough?

Excellent thx

MOOG synth case. I'm sure people still build kit or from scratch versions and need a case to put it in.

Maybe something like COMBIPLAST CP-18-51 ?

Check the old 70’s alarm clocks. Looks like those. Maybe the manufacturers have new old stock left.

Quick search I found a Brannan Bench Top Timer with a housing like your drawing... Not sure if the size is correct but someone must make this housing?

I could help Dave find a suitable case or wait for the next video where he will fight a CAD UI for our entertainment.

If only a display is in the top portion, perhaps make it pivoting to allow angle adjustment for lighting and view? That would permit the buttons to be at the front of a conventional flat rectangular case, with the pivoting display behind. A frontward hinge would let the display fold flat to the rear, facing up. A rearward hinge would let the display pivot forward. If portability is even a small issue, a pivoting display would help. Would also make packaging smaller and simpler. I haven't done this on the scale of a benchtop instrument, but have done it for smaller 2x24 LCD text/graphic displays. Works a treat!

That's a 1960s Star Trek warp flux control instrument panel type B enclosure if ever I saw one.

How about the BUD Industries PC-11495 or the OKW A9085165? I just googled 'desktop enclosure styles'.

Is it going to be an HP 9100 reenactment ?

im an EE thanks to that uSupply project, please give us closure!!

Might be easier to find a hinged enclosure so the LCD is part of the lid.

CONSOLE ENCLOSURE You’re welcome 👍

Get a 3D printer and never have to search for an encloser again. That is what I did

Yes, USB PSU update plz:)

Try "Console Enclosures" Lots and lots of sizes.

It’s a 80’s digital alarm clock

Dave, do go for 3d printing case, so we can look for it.

you can just flip first one upside down and here it is, big screen and small buttons)

Try “angled desktop enclosure” as a search.

Looks like my old radio spares timer box

The correct search term is NPP control panel

Compucab dual sloping enclosure

That shape looks kind of like a desktop calculator. Try searching "desktop calculator enclosure".

How about joining two enclosures together?

first thing i thought of when i saw the image was a mini Commodore Pet