Quick and Easy Lumenera Case

[Stephen]

Well, I say quick and easy but it's been an ordeal! I won't go into the failed starts and problems I ran into but I will share a quick way to get that shiny Lumenera Lu070m board camera into an IP66 case.

Thanks to beamish who has tolerated my constant pestering via email

I had a few requirements for the case. They are probably a little OCD : but that's just me

• No plastic cases! Nasty, nasty, eugh
  
• IP66! The camera cost enough, I want it protected
  
• Passive cooling! I'm not using a fan so I wanted as much aluminium as possible
  
• Black! Black is cool, natural alu is .... too shiny
  
• One port! The lu070m has two ports and an LED. Unless you are as clever as beamish, this is hard to cut out
  

First up the case. Although this seems large, it's just the right size to fit the camera and panel connector into. It meets all my requirements for the case, and doesn't weight that much at all.

Rapid Electronics - 1550WDBK IP66 Diecast Aluminium Enclosure 115 x 64 x 55 Black

and secondly the panel connector. It took ages to find a USB B to B with a short fly lead on it! Granted it's not IP66, but I will see to that later ...

Startech 1 Feet Panel Mount USB Cable B to B - F/M: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

As you can see, there is one slight problem with the connector as supplied - it won't fit in the case!

Five minutes later and a quick flick with a stanley knife, problem resolved. The cable isn't under any undue stress to turn through 90 degrees.

The only difficult bit (which I cheated and asked a mate with a pillar drill to do!) was cutting out the holes. To mark it out, I removed the heatsink completely from the camera. (PS the hole is 32mm.)

This also made it easier to put it into the case as I could build the camera up from the CCD to the floor. I covered the heatsink in thermal tape and seated it well. The case is now an extended heatsink!

With all the bits in, you can see it is a little tight - but workable! The screws are 1/2" 4-40 machine screws. Stupid American sizing that doesn't seem to translate to metric - but there's always someone on eBay who has what you need.

Only slight issue with the case, my mate misaimed one of the screw holes for the panel. I might just silicon that over rather than try and file it out

And with the gasket on the lid and all screwed down, here's the final product

Rather pleased with it if I do say so myself. I also have a C-mount lens cap coming (again from eBay but US this time) so I don't have to leave the adaptor on all the time. OCD again, but I'd rather store it separately in (one of) my equipment cases.

Hope this helps someone!

[Gina]

Nice job That box looks just right, I usually find available boxes are either too small or a lot bigger than needed.

[Stephen]

Nice job That box looks just right, I usually find available boxes are either too small or a lot bigger than needed.

You touched on one of the issues there, it took me four weeks and four different cases to find one that was suitable!

The main problem seemed to be height, anything that is greater than 40mm in height is usually 150 - 200mm in length!

[Gina]

You touched on one of the issues there, it took me four weeks and four different cases to find one that was suitable!

The main problem seemed to be height, anything that is greater than 40mm in height is usually 150 - 200mm in length!

Yes, that's what I've found.

[beamish]

Steve, you're missing a screw in the panel USB

"Quick and Easy" R U sure ???

Nice job and well done with persevering, looks very neat !

[Stephen]

Steve, you're missing a screw in the panel USB

"Quick and Easy" R U sure ???

Nice job and well done with persevering, looks very neat !

Hah funny guy

Well it was relatively quick and easy once we got to the simplest way of doing it (that met my OCD requirements!)