Easy laser-cut electronics cases for maker boards (2017)
climbers.net
climbers.net
If I were making a large number of things that I needed to be that durable, I'd be happy to engineer all the standoffs and isolation properly, but frankly wood and plastic are just way easier for throwing something together in my garage.
Faraday cages seem to be a bit more complicated than they appear.
You can get special conductive tape (very beautiful btw, made from eg copper and conductive glue) and cover all the slits. This works better if you have conductive contact to the box, but still helps if not (in this case get the cheaper tape with non-conductive glue).
But as people involved in this space say, EMI is voodoo and I suspect praying to the EMI god, putting little metal amulets on all the cables and making strange markings with this conductive tape are all necessary to limit emissions below the limits. Homebrew electronics are the worst, and passing EMI tests with them can be a special kind of hell. </rant>
In England, Eddystone have been making them for about three generations of electric hobbyists.
Many Arduino/Rasperry Pi type boards have connectors on every edge. It's hard to box those things. That's what motivates these two-plate "cases". If all the connectors are on one edge, it's easier to package the unit.
For slightly more complex cases, I submit:
http://www.makercase.com/ (gives me certificate errors on HTTPS, but still quite useful)
http://dev.dirtypcbs.com/store/lasercut
(Hey it looks like the custom cable builder[0] is back online, woo hoo!)
http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Sick_of_Beige_compatible...
They follow a standard size series, with standard mounting hole offsets, corner radii, etc. The idea being that if you're designing a PCB, you may as well go with one of these sizes because the laser cut cases are commercially available, or someone following the design can make their own easily too.
They work great with minimal modification for the Pi, Adafruit protoboards, etc.
Earlier in the year I wanted to have a case made for one of of my electronics projects, and managed to find a free design from thingiverse.com, then pay a local person a small amount of money to get it 3D-printed.
Over time I've gotten more tempted to have a 3D-printer of my own, but I don't think I could quite justify the expense.
$219.99 - great quality but the price means a small bed size.
reddit.com/r/3dprinting for a great community all about 3dprinting!
The prices are just ridiculously low now as well. $160 + tax and shipping gets you a printer[2]. Obviously you pay for that in terms of continual fiddling and reduced quality (and the $220 MP select mini is probably a better choice), but even that's better than how it used to be. $600 will get you nearly hassle-free prints and $750 will get you one of the best printers on the market[3] (well, almost on the market). Arguably the new Prusa is the best option out there- right now it has features that no other printers do, certainly not with the same build size. Really impressive bit of kit[4].
IMO 3d printing is legitimately at the point where if you're making things at home, a 3d printer should be on your list of tools to buy even before a mill. Obviously it depends on what you want to make but it now takes way longer to learn and use modeling software than to set up and tweak your printer.
[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3O0jKvxUIM
[2]: https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=21666
[3]: https://shop.prusa3d.com/en/3d-printers/180-original-prusa-i...
I bought my first 3d printer about a year ago and it quickly turned into one of the best things I've ever bought.
If you're at all interested in making things at home, there's almost no reason not to own a 3D printer.
I recently replaced the no-brand i3 clone that I initially bought with an Anycubic i3 Mega, and am very happy with the new machine. It's nice and rigid, easy to use, prints stick to the bed well while printing and pop off easily after printing. And all for less than £300.
As you said, the hardest part about it all is learning the CAD software.
On the other hand 3d printed cases can be beautiful and much more sophisticated[1] than lasercut. You aren't limited by the need for huge gussets and dozens of pain in the ass square nuts. Plus you can have curved surfaces.
[1]: https://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/tuco_flyer.j...
I too am not such a fan of the jigsaw look, it was the rigidity and strength that I liked. If you say they aren't as strong in practice, perhaps 3D printing would be better. I've only ever seen really good prints come from expensive machines with a fair amount of post-processing going on. TBH currently I just get cases from Hammond most of the time. It's the creation of front panels as well that I'd like to achieve more cleanly. As it's just my hobby, I can just about put up with the misaligned square holes!
There isn't a lot of difference between high and low end FDM printers in terms of print quality, the difference is more with UI polish and idiot-proofness. With a bit of practice however you can get very high quality prints out of any recent printer as long as it isn't a total mess in terms of design.
I also have a basic CNC machine which I like, but of the big three maker machines (3D printer, laser cutter, CNC) I'd say the 3D printer is probably the one you want first because it's the most versatile. I mostly use the CNC for fabricating one-off PCBs and while I get a lot of use out of it for that most of the other things I could do with it I just do with a 3D printer. The CNC is a lot messier and more complicated, especially if you wanna cut wood or metal and if you want to do true 3D carves you need to do some proper CAM, which is a whole different skill set from CAD.
Laser cutters have a lot of downsides, especially if you are looking into one at home. Smaller diode laser cutters/engravers are more accessible to someone at home, but they can have a hard time cutting acrylic, particularly clear acrylic. You can get fairly affordable CO2 lasers now in the $5-600 with good laser performance but apparently the electronics suck so you need to change em and focusing the beam is a pain (it's invisible). My main problem with lasers though is that they are potentially very dangerous. One mistake can leave you blind or on fire, which means you have to take a lot of care using them, adding hassle. Plus you need to manage fume extraction carefully, as laser cutting produces pretty harmful vapors that need to be filtered and vented.
What I'm getting at is: 3D printer - minimal hassle, maximum versatility, good for home. CNC machine - medium hassle, medium-low versatility, kinda borderline depending on your use. Laser - high hassle, medium versatility, I'd rather go to a dedicated shop than deal with one at home.
Side note, designing a DIY CNC mill is kinda hard because their mechanical requirements are actually quite extreme even at the low end. You'll end up spending a lot of time and money on it, especially when you can get a cheap-but-pretty-good mill from Aliexpress.
You are likely correct that it's better to get a kit even if on the cheaper end than go DIY. There is something about reusing parts that would otherwise go to landfill I really wanted to achieve. Perhaps I can find other uses for them, even if just mastering their operation with an arduino.