Shout out to Chemelec
If I post a top and bottom sketchup drawing could you fashion out an enclosure.
If I am mistaken you are in Canada?
After conferring with Toolessenclosures, maybe 2- U shaped sections then glue together??
Tried locating some 2.5mm abs or other suitable material and came up empty. Thinking after I get one complete then consider where to go then.
Shout out to Chemelec
If I post a top and bottom sketchup drawing could you fashion out an enclosure.
If I am mistaken you are in Canada?
After conferring with Toolessenclosures, maybe 2- U shaped sections then glue together??
Tried locating some 2.5mm abs or other suitable material and came up empty. Thinking after I get one complete then consider where to go then.
Will post pics later today.
On your idea of a board built to enclosure instead of enclosure to board is an option I am considering. One issue I am running into is the enclosure needs to be square, not rectangle. Looking at increasing the board size to fit enclosure but the square is the big issue. PLUS it would be nice to get it with a battery compartment or only 20mm tall.
Lots of different issues
The board measures 100mm x 100mm. Add the battery pack 60mm x 50mm x 18mm (3-AA batteries). Could go with AAA but really not much different in size.
For what you're trying to do, what could work well is making a blank "base board" with holes in the corners for 3mm spacers.. Then mount the main board the appropriate height above it to allow the batteries to rest in between.
With the cost of boards being what it is, this a
is an inexpensive way to get a finished look.
If I am understanding correctly, have the sides open? At present the batteries are in a holder that is soldered to the board.
I have been using a 3/4" square piece of wood with a square cut out in the middle for the battery holder to fit into.
This works well and considering making an enclosure from some nice hardwood, trim it out so no end-grain.
This may be the least expensive. I have a new revised board design with the switches moved in about 5mm from the edge of the board to use as mounting points.
Along the same idea as Jons but the sides would be covered.
Actually, it's nothing at all like I suggested except perhaps for existing in this universe.
The picture is of a piece of test gear. Blank circuit board panels (blank in the sense of having circuitry) are used as cover panels on the front and back. You could even have buttons of a tactile switch and LEDs extend through the panel if desired.
In the case of your current board, you'd need mouting holes in it and matching holes in a bottom panel. It's a cheap way of doing it, since a 100mm×100mm board is only 50 cents, with maybe another buck for screws, nuts and spacers.
here is a pic of board in the enclosure. I might add a very nice enclosure.
Have an updated board design to send to board house after I get feedback from a family using said board.
Imexpensive 12mm switches and caps could brighten up your mono-chromatic look and make your project a little less utilitarian-looking as will. The captive buttons lend themselves to an overlay cover of PCB material or 3mm laser-cut acrylic too. With a cover panel, through-hole 5mm LEDs could poke through the panel adjacent to each switch.
The pictures show one of the 12mm switch/ button kits from ebay and an application of those buttons. See the linked article for more details.
Thanks Jon will look at the link. As In the pic I posted, the smd leds have a short section of plastic tubing filled with glue to act as a light pipe. One issue we found is when a dominio is on the hub (the pictured rectangle on board) players from across the board can not see if an led is ON.
I started with lighted buttons but cost was way out in left field at $1. 60 each I recall so went with tactil buttons. Made a cleaner design. Considered using through hole leds but surface mount works well. Thinking maybe if I went through hole leds I could eliminate the light tubes??
After playing Mexican Train on Wednesday and contemplating "how to improve the board" I came up with an idea to eliminate using light pipes. Measured a domino thickness at 10mm thick (the viewing of the leds from across the table with light pipes works great but l;ooks tacky" so doing so research and find a 10mm led would be higher than a domino.
Taking the time to analyze an issue then figuring out a solution results is a better end product. This game board is getting a revised board that utilizes 10 mm leds and mounting pads.
Need to find cost between leds w/ resistor vers using a smd resistor.