What Enclosure do you use for nodes?

[chrisinkc]

I thought it would be helpful for everyone to share pictures of their enclosures so we can share ideas and spark new ones.  Please post pictures of your devices.  

[chrisinkc]

I'll go first!

As a parent of 2 boys aged 9 and 13, there is one thing that we are never in short supply of.... Legos!  Legos make a great material for building enclosures.  They are all plastic, so no worries about interference from metal.  You can build just about any shape or size enclosure out of Legos.  Also, they are light weight and easy to cut/drill through.


This is a picture of my Garage Node that opens and closes the garage door via SSR.

[papa]

Big Grin  at using Legos. I have considered making Lego enclosures but have not done that. I've also considered small Rubbermaid tubs for moisture / dust protection. My poor nodes are mostly naked.

You can see pics from the Oct 10, 2015 at 3:51pm post in my Success... thread where I posted a template & assembly instructions for a cardboard boot to protect the mains output end of a DC to AC Solid State Relay. I've done several of those. I've thought since that I could enhance the safety by painting the cardboard with some kind of insulating finish (maybe even some liquid electrical tape I have).

Again my poor nodes are mostly naked.  I've spent most of my time on getting a system working & documenting what works & my wife has been pretty tolerant. 

In terms of preparing nodes for a compact enclosure, I can make some suggestions.  Like you, I started with longer wires.  On one occasion, I managed to fit a node inside a wall switch box.  As part of making it fit, I soldered much shorter wires to connect the RFM69 to the Arduino, just long enough to reach & enter the sockets.  (The RFM69 was mostly even with the top of the sockets.  I wound the antenna around a pencil to make a coil.  The antenna works fine.

[chrisinkc]

For my garage DHT, flame, smoke, light, and reed switch node I made use of a broken WDTV device.  I made my own board since I didn't have enough height to use a proto shield.  No making fun of the soldering job!

[chrisinkc]

I didn't have room for the smoke sensor inside the box, so I mounted it to the top.




Here it is completely assembled.

[computourist]

Like many of us I'm always struggling with the WAF of my projects. Recently I came across a cheap mechanical timer that allowed me to build a compact DIG-node.

I ripped out the mechanical timer and was able to fit a complete node inside, with space to spare ! The removed timer left a big hole in the front of the enclosure, but the cap of a can of razor foam did the trick. I placed a pushbutton on the side to toggle the output.

Some foto's showing the result.

Only 2,5 cm thick..



with a nice green finish...



and the inner works:

[papa]

Neat & compact, computourist. I like it.

[greginkansas]

The house mood light

[greginkansas]

Roomba node under the desk.

[greginkansas]

Gateway - mega, ethernet, proto with 3V regulator and radio.

[papa]

greginkansas, I find your enclosure pics interesting, but what I'd really like to see ...

In a thread of your choosing, more about your garage DHT, flame, smoke, light, and reed switch node:
    Parts description of the smoke & flame sensors
A schematic or at least list of the sensors' Arduino connectins
    The Sketch.

& How well does the node & Gateway handle all these functions?

[computourist]

My gateway in a laser-cut plastic enclosure:

[jimkernsjr]

Hi All...

First off, you all have been such a great help and inspiration to me.  Many thanks for all the hard work you've all done to make this as polished as it is today.  I love Computourist's 2 way Gateway - I use version 2.2 today - with a small modification because mine was locking up.  This fixed it for me with the mod to the MQTTclient loop:

github.com/computourist/RFM69-MQTT-client/issues/5

Nevertheless it all works great as of today.  I have so far:

Gateway - I Love this enclosure.  I had a guy that sells them on ebay make it custom.  With his permission, I will post his info.  Pictures in the next post

He blends good with his surroundings on an end table.  I'll use POE to power him when my cables show up.  Love my custom shield too!  In case you wonder about the layers:

Arduino Buono UNO LC
Ethernet Shield
2 extended pin Headers for spacing
Protoshield (the standard with the 2 LED's-I used them for radio activity and added a green for MQTT link as you can see)
Header again for breakout board
Breakout board (modtronicsaustralia.com) with SMA connector, RFM69HW radio, and a cool antenna, also an internal coil if I didnt like to have the Full Size.
 

Carport- presence, light, temp and humidity with a small LED on the side.  I changed the code to flash out error codes (no connection, etc) and in normal operation light like a standard motion detector.  Pictures in the next post.


These are nice watertight boxes from Lowes, all parts for the most part sealed with hot glue, even though it's not in the rain.  Power is a USB phone charger, The mains lines are just 2 female spade connectors slid on the prongs, shrink tubed, and all under tough safe plastic from an old power supply - for safety.  It's an Anarduino miniwireless that Greg in Kansas helped me with the voltages on the FTDI (many thanks Greg...I feel stupid about that-this is the one with the fried Serial Receive!). 

Hope you all like, and I've inspired you all like you have so kindly done for me.  I'll put some more pictures when I get more done.

Best regards,
Jim

[jimkernsjr]

My Gateway attached

Attachments:

[jimkernsjr]

And My Carport End Node.

Attachments:

[jimkernsjr]

And Maybe my prototyping system for this project can make someones life easier.  Radio on a breakout board, header on prototype shield on Buono UNO LC.  MISO, MOSI, SCK hardwired to 11-13, SS and IRW are the movable wires - so I can make it a gateway quickly if I wish or use on another project.  Frees up the entire breadboard for the rest of the electronics! These RFM Breakouts are from OshPark.  Got 6 for $10 - as apposed to the expensive Australian one at around $10 each on my gateway.  This is my dryer vent so far.

Attachments:

[papa]

Thanks, Jim, for posting pics & summaries of your devices. It's always interesting to see how others work with the possibilities & challenges of this project.

[greginkansas]

Mar 12, 2016 6:40:09 GMT jimkernsjr said:

And Maybe my prototyping system for this project can make someones life easier.  Radio on a breakout board, header on prototype shield on Buono UNO LC.  MISO, MOSI, SCK hardwired to 11-13, SS and IRW are the movable wires - so I can make it a gateway quickly if I wish or use on another project.  Frees up the entire breadboard for the rest of the electronics! These RFM Breakouts are from OshPark.  Got 6 for $10 - as apposed to the expensive Australian one at around $10 each on my gateway.  This is my dryer vent so far.

Are you going use a node for summer/winter venting?  if so have you found a flapper case?

[jimkernsjr]

Hi Greg...

Yes, I already have the flapper, I just manually operate it now [Yuck! ]
 
Search for "heat keeper CHK100ZW" on ebay and you will see what I have.  Yes, this will be completely integrated into my OpenHAB as a usual end node.  That is also how I will see what mode my thermostat is in (I'll only recover if it's in heat and maybe outside temp below 50f. 

[greginkansas]

Got a new printer so some new node cases also this. Inmoov head for IO with openhab

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[papa]

So, greg, Santa came early, eh, with a new 3-D printer? Sweet!

[papa]

Many of my nodes do not have enclosures (poor things), but there are some exceptions when I want to protect them from water, crushing, or other damage or protect humans from mains voltage.

                            
As computourist showed above, ^^  I replaced the insides of this remote-controlled outlet to be Node-controlled.  Near a bathroom sink, this protects people from mains voltage.

  
         ^^ I've used these 1.2 cup / 283 ML Rubbermaid lunchblox with a couple holes for wires.  I bought them cheap at a dollar store.

  
             ^^ For my outdoor garden project, I bought these pretty big (200mmx155mmx80mm) waterproof project boxes. They have 10 holes (36mm, 1.4 inches diameter) that are filled with piercable rubber stoppers to receive cabling). As of April, 2020 we must wait for them to arrive from China. In the pic, you can see half of the 10 possible circular ports.  They are a rubbery plastic which one can puncture to pass in wiring from the outside.  So far they have kept inside components dry in rainy weather.  Into this box, I fit a duplex surface mount electrical outlet, an Arduino compatible with RFM69 radio, a 24 VAC power adapter, an SSR-25 DA solid state relay, & a 5 volt power adapter & USB cord.  For 3 years so far (2017-2019), the project box has successfully protected the electronics.

            What enclosures are working for you?

[papa]

Sonoff ESP8266 WiFi devices have a case to somewhat protect their mains connections from touch & water.

In this post, jimkernsjr provided strong cautions & resources for enclosing the Sonoff more safely.

[greginkansas]

This is the case for the front room roomba. IR to send on runs and sonar for on base sensing.

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[jimkernsjr]

Greg, that is too cool. I wanted to do it, but on the Roomba itself. Looks like you have the same Roomba I do, the serial port is under that grey cover. Did you look into that, or is that all you were looking for?
My idea:
-put in into manual mode when it's stuck , turn the brushes off, and help it get unstuck by reversing it.
-telemetry data to make it handle different areas better. I wanted to graph the floor plan, but I don't think he's accurate enough with wheel slip.
-with the above, I though I could get him back to home faster when the battery is low. He stops alot in random places, and my house is pretty open concept.
-of course remote control him to torment the cat

It's not that hard,especially since iRobot gave all the codes for the serial bus. It's just a back burner project, and now my battery is very weak, so I don't know how much more I'll put into it.

For the case topic, here is what I use for the sonoff. Even spare room for the wago terminal to carry the ground through:



Purchase link and more pictures in the Sonoff OTA thread.

Along Papa's lines, I also use the waterproof electrical box you can get at Lowes or Home Depot, and put a PIR in the lid, see my earlier post.  It just doesn't have all those neat knockouts for easy accessibility.

This stupid product is great to re-purpose for a node:
www.aliexpress.com/item/Electronic-Ultrasonic-Rat-Mouse-Repellent-Anti-Mosquito-Repeller-Rodent-Pest-Bug-Reject-Mole-Repeller-EU-plug/32720791600.html

and the "whole house energy savers" are perfect too.  But with the fake pest nonsense, you get your bridge rectifier and a bit of a power supply.

[greginkansas]

Jul 6, 2017 1:54:34 GMT jimkernsjr said:

" Did you look into that, or is that all you were looking for?

That all I want for the Working ones,  I do have one for hacking just not got to it.

"  I though I could get him back to home faster when the battery is low. He stops alot in random places, and my house is pretty open concept.
" my battery is very weak, so I don't know how much more I'll put into it.

If you get a new one, get the lithium one it's good for over 2 hours
 

[jimkernsjr]

Thanks for the advice. If I ever get to working on him again, I'll put the code here. I think you could easy add the missing features to the older models to make them pretty much the same as the newer ones, and have a great addition to your home automation system!

[papa]

This post has jimkernsjr's thoughts on enclosures to protect mains AC voltages

[papa]

        A 3D Printed Enclosure

In this thread, Joshua describes a 3D printed case for an RFM69 Gateway. With less holes, it could probably be used also for an end node.

Joshua provided the 3D printer file for downloading.

[papa]

        Outdoor Project Enclosures

Using DIY Home Automation nodes outside adds another dimension to enclosing them. One must protect them from water & other hazards.

Purchasing truly waterproof enclosures can be expensive.  It's probably worth it for expensive, delicate equipment.

In this post, I show a project box I used to enclose nodes for outdoor garden beds. I believe I paid about $30 each to a U.S. supplier. For 3 years, they worked OK & then in heavy rains this year, one flooded.  Since components filled much of the space, it was tricky to work on things. I also suspect some condensation collected inside. Moreover, the boxes' height prevented me from extending the RFM69 radio antenna vertically.

Other than the AC mains outlet, my garden bed project is low power. As shown in this post, I mounted components on a post. I also purchased a $10 large plastic waste container to cover the mounted components. I believe this inexpensive solution will sufficiently protect my garden nodes. This approach makes it easier to work on the nodes & should avoid flooding & collecting condensation