Metal enclosure Soarer's Converter

[Maledicted]

I'm not sure how many people may be interested in this, but I noticed a little while back that metal guitar pedal/stomp boxes are reasonably cheap on Amazon, even compared to plastic project boxes. Personally, I'm a fan of things that are basically indestructible, so ...

I ordered these:

https://www.amazon.com/1590B-Enclosure-electronic-prototype-guitar/dp/B07L953KYW/ref=sr_1_44?keywords=guitar+stomp+box&qid=1580314140&sr=8-44

Not too shabby, especially for including some breadboards and a stepped drill bit. The bit worked pretty well too, although I needed a separate 16mm bit to make the holes large enough for my 5-pin din socket (which had to be pivoted diagonally for the screws to clear the posts for the box's screws) and beefy reset button.


       

       

Some of the pictures could have been focused better, sorry about that. My phone is pretty finicky in that regard.

There are larger boxes available you could try to jam a bunch more sockets into. You could probably fit a few more into this one even, but I don't have any on-hand, and don't particularly feel like playing Tetris in there at the moment anyway.

[Techno Trousers]

That's great! Neat and tidy. A while back I started researching whether/how I could make a nice looking soarers converter box that would accept input from 180 DIN, 270 DIN, PS/2 and USB, and output USB. Maybe even an RJ45 input just to round it out. A truly universal converter. The cost of parts and effort for a one-off would be prohibitive though. Maybe Orihalcon will see a business opportunity in offering such a thing.

[Maledicted]

That's great! Neat and tidy. A while back I started researching whether/how I could make a nice looking soarers converter box that would accept input from 180 DIN, 270 DIN, PS/2 and USB, and output USB. Maybe even an RJ45 input just to round it out. A truly universal converter. The cost of parts and effort for a one-off would be prohibitive though. Maybe Orihalcon will see a business opportunity in offering such a thing.

Thank you very much. I've thought about the same thing often, and have also thought about building them to sell, but I would probably need a 1/2" drill that was either wired, or had a battery that lasted for more than 5 minutes and more/nicer drill bits. I imagine trying to make square holes for certain sockets would be a pain as well, even in plastic with a sharp chisel or something.

[gipetto]

you would use a square metal file for that. I've often done it, not hard at all.

[Tactile]

...I imagine trying to make square holes for certain sockets would be a pain as well, even in plastic with a sharp chisel or something.

Do a search for "nibbling tool".

[Maledicted]

you would use a square metal file for that. I've often done it, not hard at all.

I have used files a decent amount, but mostly on reasonably hard steel, so I imagine it wouldn't be terrible on whatever alloy these may be after drilling a hole or something, but my idea of a pain is not being able to just mark a spot with a punch and drill a hole. lol

Do a search for "nibbling tool".

Those I had never heard of before. Pretty cool, thank you. They look to be mostly for sheet metal though?

[Tactile]

you would use a square metal file for that. I've often done it, not hard at all.

I have used files a decent amount, but mostly on reasonably hard steel, so I imagine it wouldn't be terrible on whatever alloy these may be after drilling a hole or something, but my idea of a pain is not being able to just mark a spot with a punch and drill a hole. lol

Do a search for "nibbling tool".

Those I had never heard of before. Pretty cool, thank you. They look to be mostly for sheet metal though?

Plastic & thin metal. Wouldn't work on a box of die cast aluminum.

[fohat.digs]

Much nicer than mine! Good job!

https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=58941.msg2547545#msg2547545

[Maledicted]

Much nicer than mine! Good job!

https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=58941.msg2547545#msg2547545

Thank you very much. I have seen your converters before. The first one I built was also in one of those blue junction boxes, although I think that that was coincidence, it was just something I found quick for very cheap at the local Fleet Farm (I had no other way of testing the F XT I had just spliced a MIDI cable into what remained of the original severed cable). You should see that stupid thing. I recently mangled the box while drilling the hole for another one of those reset buttons. I can't really say that my go-to of hot gluing the Pro Micro into a hole I drill in the side to be particularly elegant either, but it means the delicate micro usb port is unlikely to ever break, without the need for a pigtail cable.

Your idea of making adapter cables to feed to a single socket always seemed very practical to me. It is easy to imagine having multiple converters around for various computers, it isn't easy to imagine having multiple Wyse terminal keyboards that would conceivably be connected to more than one of those at a time. The adapters can stick with the oddball boards and you can plug whatever usual 5-pin board into your consequently relatively compact converter directly.

What does appeal to me though with the bulky all-in-one converters is having something to use/take with to recycling facilities, or have on-hand for testing if someone approaches with some strange board out of the blue.