eevBLAB #29 - How To Search For An Enclosure

Dave shows you how to parametric search for a rather obscure handheld 3xAA or 3xAAA plastic enclosure.

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[trevorstewart]

Your mentioning of old RS and Farnell catalogs made me think of the following (I've not thought about physical RS catalogs in ages, doing all my shopping online).

In the control room of our experiment in Japan we have a dog eared set of "Trusco orange-book" catalogs which are mainly for hardware, tools, compressors, valves etc, etc. The website is in Japanese, and despite many of us having varying amounts of knowledge of the language, searching can be tough when you don't really know lots of technical Japanese (classes rarely seem to teach you the vocabulary needed to order ball valves with specific specifications). We often find thumbing through the paper catalogs is the quickest way to find that obscure part that you need. It does take me back to being a kid, flipping through these sorts of things back in the early 90s.

While modern experiments are read out using custom spun boards based around custom ASICs, GPUs and FPGAs there is still a lot of infrastructure needed to keep them running eg. water cooling for electronics, compressors for magnet cooling systems, gas handling equipment for time projection chambers. Our well used paper catalogs have helped keep this basic infrastructure running and provided quick fixes (often kludges) to bad situations.

Sorry for the ramble above, jet-lagged from a very long flight ... still in the "where am I? who am I?" phase.

[AndreasA.S.]

did a google search "enclosure 3xAA" and found alot of links, in fact, im trying to find a 18650 double and single cases and came up with a few prospects

[AntonyTCurtis]

Back in the 1990s, I used to keep a Farnell, RS and Maplin catalog for browsing... Maplin was best for pinouts.

[electronicsandcode]

Searching for enclosures annoys me every time I'm designing a product.
Most of these enclosures cost a fortune compared to the electronics that have to be fit inside ...

[flymypg]

Tip for Young Players: Pick your enclosure BEFORE starting PCB layout!

[Falney]

This came at a perfect time as I was wanting a project box and I am a new comer to electronics so pretty much everything is a learning experience at this point. Then I saw the price.... And decided to continue down the path of building a 3D printer and dusting off my ancient copy of 3DS Max.

[KosmosHorology]

Hey Dave. Thanks for that! RS Components has a pretty good selection, and very good parametric filters/search.

[nrdesign]

You just perfectly described my last few days at work, but in search for switches that also have to happen to fit a case size that was constrained as "don't make it too large" whilst keeping it safe to work with at mains electricity. Also, the RS website really sucks.

[xenomorph]

Brilliant, I was just searching for enclosures, your video came just right in time :)!

[nagytibi]

Found the Chrome extension, it's called "Hover Zoom", if someone wonders.

[fuzzydk]

first step on finding enclosures or odd connectors are a few keyword into google image serach

[AttitudeGames]

My last RS catalogue (all 4 of books) are still in their box they came in, sadly due to its quicker doing the searches, they are now being used to hold open the door.
But yeah, I use to love looking through them, which passed loads of time :P

[originalveghead]

RS and Maplins catalogs were the best toilet reading when I was a kid.

[MattOGormanSmith]

with a sneaky microswitch, you could make a 4 cell compartment that takes either 3 alkalines or 4 NiCd/NiMH cells and auto switches if the 4th compartment is occupied. Using an odd number of cells is depraved when chargers only do pairs. My little Velleman scope insists on rechargables, but takes FIVE cells. total pita.

[Darieee]

I've used bopla .. very good quality parts .. and they're also very well priced

[frankbuss]

Buy an enclosure for 4 batteries, then solder a wire. Optional: hot glue something in the free space.

[tajjej]

I searched google for "enclosure 3 x aa" and found quite a bit, right off the bat.

[ingenierocristian]

Someone please make a ringtone with the Voice of Dave singing “Allelullah” 😂

[DaveCurran]

Once you've found one, always useful to go back through you usual suppliers and search by the manufacturers part number, or just google it. Sometimes brings up ones that weren't properly indexed in the suppliers search pages.

[headmetal]

Nice, I actually need to find an enclosure for a project, so this helped a lot, thanks!