[hpsdr] Fwd: Roll Your own Hermes Enclosure

[Ian Guffick]

Hi John,

I'm glad you found both mine and Dick's drawings useful. I had
enlarged the LAN connector opening to allow the spring grounding hooks
to fit into the hole. From experience this is usually necessary to
prevent undue force on the connector when trying to put it through a
front panel hole. However, I had a bare Hermes board that was
partially built, so I hadn't realised that the connector doesn't
protrude through at all.
I'll amend my drawing to suit. Thanks for the feedback.

Your front/rear panels look great. Thanks for sharing your pictures
and FPD files.

Regards,
Ian G7JXY.


On 26 November 2012 10:03, John Marvin <jm-hpsdr at themarvins.org> wrote:
>
> ***** High Performance Software Defined Radio Discussion List *****
>
>  Dick,
>
> I used the dimensions in this pdf on your site:
>
> http://www.k9ivb.net/Hermes/Hermes%20End%20Plates%20v2.pdf
>
> along with the document from Ian Guffick to create end plates using "Front Panel Designer" (free software from Front Panel Express) to order end plates from Front Panel Express. Ian did a great job, but I didn't agree with him enlarging the LAN jack cutout from the dimensions in the above document. He made the hole a tiny bit wider (0.3 mm), and 0.5 mm higher. That's not much, but the plug doesn't go through the plate anyway, i.e. the jack is flush with the end of the board, so the hole could even be a little smaller (i.e. it could actually partially cover the edges of the jack). Also, when making the hole 0.5 mm higher he didn't move the bottom down by another 0.25 mm, which is fine, but that means that the .5mm was all added to the top, which would expose even more open space above the jack.
>
> Anyway, the changes are not that much, but I stuck with the original dimensions in the above document. As I mentioned, I think the dimensions could even be smaller, but I wouldn't raise the bottom of the hole.  I also stuck with the dimensions in the above pdf for the accessory port, although the differences were even smaller for that hole. Another change I made, since I was having holes milled anyway (no tool change incurred, so the price for rectangular led holes was just about the same as having them drilled), was to cut rectangular holes for the rectangular LED's, rather than circles. I like the way that turned out.  The biggest mistake I made was in countersinking the screw holes for the panels. I wanted the holes countersunk so that the case screws didn't stick out. I was a little overzealous in countersinking them, and even though Front Panel Express shows that the countersink winds up enlarging the drill hole (in the associated diagram), it didn't show a change in the drill hole diameter (for a #6 screw) so I missed that. So the countersinks were way too large for the screws that came with the case.  But it turns out that that was OK.  I went to Home Depot and got some brass #6-32 x 1/2 machine screws (silver colored screws are also available). The head were thicker than the end plate, but since the holes were large enough due, the bottom of the head came through. I just used a drill press to make the case holes for the screws larger for only a short distance (too large for the screw, but wide enough to accommodate the extra screw head thickness). Since I was replacing the case screws with 1/2" screws I wasn't worried about the short space that I was losing, since there was plenty of thread beyond that.  It turned out that with those screws the screw was perfectly countersunk in the end plates, after making the small case adjustment (i.e. I didn't have to change anything with the end plate). I actually prefer how that turned out, both mechanically and aesthetically.
>
> Other small mistakes that I probably would change if I did it again:
>
> 1) I made the small lettering too tightly spaced. I did that to fit "HEADPHONE" under the headphone jack, but I should have either gone smaller, abbreviated, or only used the tight spacing for that particular jack.
>
> 2) I may have placed the jack lettering too close to most of the holes. I might prefer the lettering to have been a little lower. This would have been particularly true if I had used any flat washers on the exterior SMA or power connectors.
>
> Anyway, the cost of having them done by Front Panel Express was fairly high. Some money could be saved by not doing the lettering or not having the lettering filled. Here are some links to pictures of my finished Hermes case, along with the Front Panel Designer files I used. I can provide details about the extra jacks I used for power and PTT out if anyone cares. Also, I got a 20% referral discount code from Front Panel Express when my order was completed, that anyone can use.  Here's the code if anyone wants to use it: 200M6CIT. The code is good until 2/28/2013.
>
> Pictures:
>
> http://www.themarvins.org/hpsdr/hermesfront.jpg
> http://www.themarvins.org/hpsdr/hermesback.jpg
>
> Front Panel Designer files:
>
> http://www.themarvins.org/hpsdr/hermesfront.fpd
> http://www.themarvins.org/hpsdr/hermesback.fpd
>
> Note that due to long exposures in bad lighting the above pictures show slightly different colors for the end plates, even though they are the same. Also, the front picture shows one led not as bright as the other.  They are both equally bright, but one is blinking while the other is solid on. Since the exposure was long, the blinking led doesn't show as brightly.
>
> Regards,
>
> John
> AC0ZG
>
> P.S. If anyone chooses to either not infill their lettering or to do their own, please take a picture of the bare metal engraving. I'd like to see what the bare metal (silver) lettering would look like in contrast to the anodized surface. That might look good enough without the need for adding white (or some other color), but I'd like to see what it would look like for future reference.
>

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