How do you mount a pcb inside a case?

I usually use standoffs. These are little hexagonal tubes with threaded ends on them, and you can drill holes in the case, screw them onto the inside panel and screw the PC board onto the top of the standoff.

so do you cut off the premade standoffs?

If you are designing your PCB then you often design it to fit the pre-installed mounting posts for the case you want to use. If you don't use them then you can cut them off.

Usually you'd use "stand-offs", they come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Some have self adhesive bottom on them so you don't have to drill holes. You can make your own out of a long screw and several nuts if you want. For quick and dirty stuff it's not uncommon to stick the board down with hot melt glue.

Dave :)

Feed "standoff" into the search bar here:

Hi, Bjarne. The first thing you want to do with an enclosure manufacturer is look at the docs. Your webpage shows links to drawings in both .pdf and .dwg formats. Open them up, and take a look.

I haven't used this manufacturer's product, but here's a few offhand observations. It seems the PULT100 product doesn't have any PCB mounting standoff provision. Now if you can, the easiest way to do it might be to just drill a few holes for extra purchased standoffs on the cover, and mount your PCB there. If you need access to the inside of the cover, or if you've got a display assembly, you'll have to drill your standoff holes on the inside bottom of the case. If you're adventurous, try making the width of your PCB equal to the distance between the slots, which will allow a slide-in "works-in-a-drawer" setup. That can be cool, and occasionally helps if your design can be made modular. If you're really bold, you might want to consider making a separate backplane to help with interconnects. The PCB guides can be very helpful there. The PULT300 is like the 100, but it also has built-in standoffs inside the box, too.

Your comment is kind of funny, because of all the issues involved in getting the PCB into the enclosure, the holes themselves are usually the only consistently easy one. You'll want to just design the proper hole spacing onto the CAD board, and you're done. The drawings show the precise X and Y dimensions of the holes. The problem is usually the rest of the assembly. You'll eventually get a sense for thinking in 3-D. Unfortunately, a lot of this is just a matter of experience and getting burned.

Good luck Chris

Cases like those have a metal plate that generally goes on the bottom. Install your switches, lights, displays, etc. on the plastic top and sides. When you arrange them, be SURE to leave room to fit your pcb inside. You don't want to smoke your board because some piece of metal touches the AC power switch terminals when the baseplate is screwed on...

Leave open space in your pcb design for mounting hardware. Make your pcb to the size you need, then drill holes where you made space (on the pcb). Then you put the pcb on the metal plate, mark through the holes with a felt pen and drill the metal plate. Use nuts, bolts and spacers to hold the pcb just off the metal plate.

Alternatively, you can try to fashion metal brackets that run from the premade sockets to the holes on your board.

Another less elegant method would be to buy adhesive velcro strips to stick the pcb wherever it fits.

HTH

Oh, yes. Your primary problem is going to be having stuff on the bottom of the box trying to occupy the same space as stuff you've mounted on the slanting cover. Voice of experience -- that's almost always the big "gotcha" with this type of enclosure. Take care. If you can, try to mount your PCB toward the rear of the enclosure, then have the switches and other deep stuff mounted on the front of the top panel.

Good luck Chris

I think Jeff owns some Google stock :) )

ends

No, they come in various sizes, and you use whatever size you need.

Zucker wrote:

...or likes tools that Just Work(tm).. ;-)

Go to Digi-Key and see what is readily available.

thanks for the replies. I think I know what to do now.