Hate to rain on the wood parade, but aside from the heat insulation issue, wood also has the tendency to build up and store static electricity (I don't think I need to explain why that's a bad thing). Also, considering the time it would take to manufacture a single case it would add considerable cost to the finished product over the cheap aluminum cases that are pre-made for the board.
While I agree that it would look WAY better than a cheap aluminum box, I don't think it's practical. Tyler Booth // President ph. 503.548.2000 | fx. 503.548.2002 921 SW Washington St, Suite 224 Portland OR 97205 On Dec 10, 2008, at 10:18 AM, Keith Lofstrom wrote: > > On Tue, Dec 09, 2008 at 09:54:26PM -0800, Russell Senior wrote: >> >> We have identified a replacement device that is much more compact, >> has >> no moving parts, is about twice as capable and uses only about 5W of >> electric power. The only downside is that it is not free. In a bulk >> purchase, each one will cost about $175 to put together. > > Sounds like our friend the ALIX. There is an additional advantage > to Alix, which is that the compact flash drives are under $10, and > we can carry spares in our wallets. Much easier to do a software > swap than with hard drives. > > > May I suggest a mechanical hardware change? > > If you are rolling out 30 of these, you can afford to do a > little more case customization, rather than buying the stock > metal case. Is there anyone here with the ability to > route/sculpture wood, or alternatively to mold plastic? > > What I DON'T like about the ALIX case is that you have to pull 8 > screws and all the connections in order to swap out the CF card. > I'm also a little concerned that something so small might get > stolen. Cables pull out too easily, especially the AC adapter. > > I propose a somewhat larger wooden case, the back board made > of routed wood (or plastic), the front board being a pretty > decorative panel with the PTP logo and some text. Make it 8.5x11 > inches, about 1.5 inches thick. > > The front board might be a sheet of transparent plastic with a > stick-on label sheet with holes to look at the status lights. > TAP plastic sells scrap sheets of clear plastic for about a > buck a pound. I have sheets of 8.5x11 waterproof vinyl sticker > paper I can print on my color laser printer - I've printed > bumper stickers that held up outside for a year so far. Send > me the images, I will print them. White background, please! > > The back board would have a routed cavity that holds the ALIX > board, as well as routed channels holding the ethernet and power > cables securely in place. It could be screwed into a wall. > Wood isn't a very good thermal conductor, but 5 watts (actually > 3 to 4 for the ALIX) is easy to get rid of. The ALIX board is > loose, held in place by the front board. The front board is > attached with Velcro strips. Velcro, velcro! This permits > rapid field swapout and maintenance without tools. > > If someone got really ambitious, the back board could be made > of routed plastic, and there could be a groove to hold a gasket, > so the whole thing could be made waterproof. An outdoor version > would have security screws instead of velcro, but it would be > the same basic arrangement. > > Since the ALIX has a mini-PCI slot, it can have a wireless card > attached. Perhaps the back board should have an upper cavity > to hold a small patch antenna. > > A pretty box with a decorative front panel may be more > visually attractive to node operators. And routed channels > in a back board might help keep cables from pulling loose. > > At the end of the day, this might not save a lot of money > over the metal cases that Netgate sells, but the results > will be better. If there is nobody reading this that can > route wood or plastic, then we probably can't build this. > OTOH, this might be an outreach opportunity - there might be > a wood shop that would like a PTP node. If it looks good, > the shop might sell back boards to many customers besides PTP. > >> You can make your donation by paypal here: >> >> http://personaltelco.net/donate > > Can we add a small advertisment to the splash pages of the > existing nodes? We should note that the ALIX will log on > and connect faster, and be more reliable - let the users > vote with their donations for better service! > > Keith > > -- > Keith Lofstrom [EMAIL PROTECTED] Voice (503)-520-1993 > KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in > Silicon" > Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ The Personal Telco Project - http://www.personaltelco.net/ Donate to PTP: http://www.personaltelco.net/donate Archives: http://news.gmane.org/gmane.network.wireless.portland.general/ Etiquette: http://www.personaltelco.net/index.cgi/MailingListEtiquette List information: http://lists.personaltelco.net To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
