Choice of material

[jackpilot]

Planning to install terminal blocks /fuses/ PSU for OVH and relay board. (5V & 12V).
Thsi will be located on the  outside of the backwall.
What would be the best choice of material to install the above items on?
Wood not being an option !
Any suggestions?

[Aerosim Solutions]

Hi Jack,
One of thee primary materials I use all the time for most of my products is PVC sheeting. It is strong and quite easy to bend when heated. Quick tip for bending large pieces - heat it with your car's exhaust pipe!! It's easy to drill and tap and it is in general a great material to work with.

Happy New Year, Gwyn

[sluyt050]

Teflon (PTFE) sheet can withstand high temperatures (in case of a cockpit fire). I would go for that.

[blueskydriver]

What about an actual standard home circuit breaker box? You could have the important items behind the hinged door and other items could be accessed via removing the main panel screws or just hinge the entire front panel if need be. A breaker box has knockouts for the wiring and you could go as far as using some conduit to route your cables, as well as you can mount the box on the wall or flush into the wall.

I think it being a metal enclosure would be a good fire retardant and it certainly will look nice, you could paint it red or orange with Avionics written on it... Oh, you could get real fancy and have a throw-off switch to shut everything off at once...hint, hint, for all the recent discussions about fires...

John

[XOrionFE]

Just get a piece of wood and paint it before mounting it Jack.  You'll never know the difference and it is the easiest fastest route.   Worried about fires?  Paint it with fire retardant paint 

Scott

[Maurice]

Just get a piece of wood and paint it before mounting it Jack.  You'll never know the difference and it is the easiest fastest route.   Worried about fires?  Paint it with fire retardant paint 

Scott

Right on Scott! I don't think that paranoia about a fire is justified when you are talking about 5 & 12 V circuits out of a computer power supply. If you short either to ground the power supply shuts off and if it does not, what is the likelihood of a short circuit happening after everything is in place & visible in a back panel?

Nothing wrong about being careful & safe, but your toaster is much more likely to start a fire & kill you than your sim is   

Maurice

[jackpilot]

Here it is:
yellow 12V/ red 5V /one orange 3,4V/ black ground.
Plus one terminal for the green and black (battery switch)
The PSU is an ample 1200W.
Each bar has jumpers so it acts like one bus.

[tennyson]

That is brilliant work, Jack.

But, can I ask one question?

How many outlets in your house do you use to power the entire sim?
And what sort of current draw does a fully finished unit pull?

I'm hoping to run mine off 2 or 3 normal household outlets (10 to 15 amp?).

Am I dreaming?


Frank Cooper

[Garys]

Don't confuse outlets with circuits. Here in Canada you can run 12 outlets on one circuit. Cant remember what it is In Aus. To be safe you you would need to use at a minimum 2 separate circuits. You could do it on one circuit if your setup was a little smaller but two 15 or 20 amp circuits is more than enough to handle the load.

Gary

[tennyson]

Thanx Gary.
Our ordinary house outlets are 240 volt 10 amp, but I had an extra circuit put in at my old home to share the load.
I'll probably do the same in my new place, as soon as I get it set up.

Running off one circuit was causing a lot of problems with any other computer systems in the house (on that circuit).


Frank Cooper

[jackpilot]

Just as a reference if you are stuck one day with a PSU.
PSUs have sometimes different operating requirements
For this one:

For 5V to work, there must be a load on the 12V bus
A strip of leads is enough ! and the PSU has to be started with the trigger (Green wire) not the back switch..

Got tremendous help by PM  from the guys here
Thank you