Hi all, I'm a student and I've built a number of PCB boards, and I'd now like to house them within some kind of box. My boards do some signal processing, and BNC connectors are included so that I can input and output signals to and from my circuits - I'll obviosly have to drill holes in the box in order to do this. I also have a PSU which I want to include within the box - it connects to mains. The main PCB is 8 * 6 inches, the power supply is about 3 * 3 * 3 inches. Anyway, I'm not sure where to start with this and I'm hoping some one can give me an idea of whats involved . I'm in Scotland and I buy using Farnell - http://uk.farnell.com but I'm not ever sure as to what sections I should be looking under. I'd like the box to look somewhat perfesionsal - for presentation purposes. I hope you can get me started. Cheers, Aine.
You want to be looking under Enclosures. Which, for some strange reason, Farnell keeps in the Electrical & Electronics section http://uk.farnell.com/jsp/endecaSea...Type=&comSearch=true&manufacturerDisplay=true Good looking enclosures tend to be a little more expensive. If you have to machine the front panel by hand, then you might want to look out for aluminium or plastic rather than steel. Front panel legends look good done in a cad package, then photoshopped and printed up on a colour inkjet printer, then coated with self adhesive clear laminate, Ideally the stuff with the matt finish. Put a couple of layers of laminate on the back of the legend (for strength) and you can even put push button switches behind it and make your own switch membrane. One thing which tends to look a little unprofessional is nuts holding pot and switches and LED clips. try and put controls on a PCB just behind the front panel. you can secure this PCB to the front panel using countersunk screws, the heads of which will be hidden by your fancy custom made legend. Make sure you secure the screws to the front panel with a nut so you don't have to remove the legend to unbolt the controll panel PCB. Kevin R
