DIY headers to wrap around USB, HDMI etc

A couple things got me inspired, for one, say the Orange Pi/Banana Pi/Rapberry Pi's: they have cases you can buy, to access your USB ports and power button and all, but most of them have a full wraparound case.

Now if this were my quadcore Orange Pi, for starters I might drill as many holes in the top and bottom to get airflow. The reason is, if I have a quadcore you can bet I'll occasionally push it to the limits with batch rendering, in hot & humid weather no less. Having holes makes an external fan seem attractive as well.

Then there's Gravelrash a while back talking about taking a Pogo board out and putting it in some other enclosure.

Those two things got me thinking, to ask if there's s way to make your own headers (if that's correct terminology)? Because if this was an Orange Pi, I'd be content having enough header for jacks and just enclose the rest in metal mesh or thereabouts.

All I have to go on are these dies my dad left behind years ago, for making ham radio enclosures. You'd drill a hole in the metal chassis, then place the die (or punch or whatever it's called) above and below with the screw going through, and turn as it cuts it's way through; voila - a perfect hole or square or whatever shape the die was made to work.

This would be really neat if there's a way to do that with little computers like Pis and Pogos. There's more than one way to skin a cat (figure of speech, PETA), and one way could be to cut paper to fit over the interfaces, trace more paper and glue the layers. Not too bright but it could work. Or trace that paper to cardboard and epoxy over it, or even JB Weld metal epoxy.

With that in mind I wonder if anyone makes these kind of things or knows something?

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-= Cloud 9 =-



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 04/23/2016 11:14PM by JoeyPogoPlugE02.

JoeyPogoPlugE02 Wrote:
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> Then there's Gravelrash a while back talking about
> taking a Pogo board out and putting it in some
> other enclosure.

@Joey - "talking about" actually doing you mean. and remember everything fits with the right size hammer, oh darnit, forgot this was a hackers forum and not my other mechanics forum.......


lookie here for ideas

http://www.s-config.com/core/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Orange-Pi-Casing-02.jpg
http://www.s-config.com/core/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Orange-Pi-Casing-01.jpg



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/24/2016 09:38AM by Gravelrash.

Brilliant, the kind of work I'd be well satisfied to pull-off. Lucky me has a couple Wyse SXO that could be gutted for possible OrangePi assemblage.

* I have to admit, in a Linux hacking forum I've taken advantage of what Off Topic means.

Inspiring; thank you kindly sir.

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-= Cloud 9 =-

Joey,

> * I have to admit, in a Linux hacking forum I've
> taken advantage of what Off Topic means.

That's perfectly OK! throw all the ideas you have on here :)

In this case, I'm not quite sure what you wanted to do. Do you mean to make connectors that are mounted on the case? so USB, eSATA,... can be accessible from outside? (headers usually mean a header on the board).

I've drilled round holes on the Pogo E02 and Pogo V4 cases. And I think for retangular holes they also have tools for it (but I have not found those), is that correct Gravelrash?

-bodhi
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bodhi Wrote:
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>
> I've drilled round holes on the Pogo E02 and Pogo
> V4 cases. And I think for retangular holes they
> also have tools for it (but I have not found
> those), is that correct Gravelrash?

There are tools for cutting square holes but it really depends on what material you are looking to "puncture". they range from a heated element to a fly-press or one of the nifty little gadgets @joey has in his arsenal already. i have something similar in my toolbox in the garage, however

flypress : linky my kinda toole :)

square punch - these sort of thing are ok if your material is "soft and thin" and if plastices you warm either the tool or material or both.

although typically i drill a series of round holes close to what i need, and then file to suit with a "rats tail" file
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Needle-Files-10-pack-Modelers-Crafters-Testors-8941T-/401103581719?hash=item5d63a2f217:g:u0cAAOSwy5ZXCX0w



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/24/2016 04:05PM by Gravelrash.

@both

i like the idea of reusing one of the "so old its no use anymore" thinclients, that would hold my A20 and hdd perfectly...

cheers joey - you just caused me to hunt down a cheapo terminal...

> although typically i drill a series of round holes
> close to what i need, and then file to suit with a
> "rats tail" file

This is what people did to mount an eSATA connector on Pogo V3. For me I was too lazy so I just route the cable through a small gap at bottom front :)

-bodhi
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Forum Wiki
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@bodhi
Even einstein was "lazy" ...

Gravelrash Wrote:
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> @bodhi
> Even einstein was "lazy" ...

:)) good excuse.

-bodhi
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bodhi's corner (buy bodhi a beer)

*I've got to re-read this in the morning, I missed a couple things and am falling asleep after a long day.

Yeah what I'd meant is the wraparounds that go around the USB jacks and other holes in the case.

Great inspirations gents, reading this all, I got a lot done with my favorite ThinClient and screwed it together finally. So there's a molex (for addon USB 3.0 card) and SATA out the back of it for plugging a SATA drive on the fly.

Had a cool little idea too about running a wire out of a just-big-enough hole (metal case), to take a few rubber bands on the SATA cable, and have it bunched up before and after the case, sort of a poor man's strain relief. Nudge it into place once the cover is on.

There's a huge zen or zone with some of this, where for instance a year ago I thought I ordered an mpcie extender ribbon cable and it turned out to be pcie, and all these unrelated parts gel into what it's supposed to be. Or close enough.

In near conclusion, my plans changed from modifying a case for OrangePis to gutting SXOs and using little extender cables like that seriously cool one Gravelrash showed. The two SXOs I have are 300mhz, actually usable (and Damn Small Linux runs not bad as well as the fairly useless Windows CE) but the USB is locked to USB 1.0 speeds (they stretched the truth with that 2.0 claim) and that gets a little frustrating when you think of it.

And in conclusion I'm trying to get my pennies together for Final's week at a lot of Universities, they're pretty generous to Thrift stores :-) Bluetooth mouse I've got a place for you...

** UPDATE ** Bluetooth mouse acquired. Thanks kind students/faculty :-)

** UPDATER ** Attached is the ThinClient wired with lazy scheme. The USB 3.0 card needs external 5V so I power the external SATA and USB 3 in one fell swoop. Not professional but real convenient.

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-= Cloud 9 =-



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 04/27/2016 04:28PM by JoeyPogoPlugE02.