Hi everyone, I am having these waterproof automotive grade project box enclosures custom made.
They are available today via amazon prime.
I am gearing up to be able to supply as many as you need, so if you have a rugged IOT application, this could be the perfect fit!
This design uses a sealed 6 pin connector.
I have a board laid out for the feather already and am going to have the dev boards available soon. I was going to lay one out for the particle photon, but with the announcement today of the new feather form factor I may not. If there is demand for the photon contact me and I will be happy to work with you.
This board breaks out VIN, GND, A0, A1, TX, RX. You could easily cut traces and use jumpers to re-wire any pin for I/O.
The enclosure snaps together and can be pulled apart. The seal is a silicone gasket. The connector pins are sealed to the enclosure and do not have to be mated to maintain a seal.
The way the seal is designed being immersed will increase pressure on the seal and improve sealing. In addition, the connector pins on the box are hermetically sealed. If a connector is unplugged or fails, moisture that may seep past a wire seal wont make it past the box pins.
The mating connector is TE 1-1718646-1 You also need 6 pins and seals.
sockets : 7-1452665-1
seals: 967067-2
I recommend a small bag of desiccant for long term deployments. Something like this is cheap insurance:
Anyone who has used potting in the past will understand how expensive, difficult and messy it is to waterproof. Also, you lose the ability to access your hardware once encapsulated. With this enclosure you have easy access to your IOT devices. This enclosure will be an enabler of rugged IOT.
Awesome looking project box. How would you rate the difficulty in procuring the mating connector parts, and getting set up to crimp the sockets? Are special tools required?
This is a perfect thing you got here for the upcoming mesh devices. Thank you.
I’d like to see something like a connector kit + enclosure for whatever the extra cost may be, as well as just the enclosure. Just to have a one stop and done kind of deal.
As far as boards it’d be really nice to just have the connector broken out on the board so I can wire it up with anything (or any pins I need), not just particle
I just wish I had one of these about 6 months ago when I put particle-attached sensors on my drip irrigation setup! Instead of a big ugly grey waterproof box I could have hid this somewhere
Top down view of PCB and feather attached with normal .1 pitch headers and sockets. There is enough headroom for this to easily fit in the enclosure despite the taller profile with headers and sockets. 3.3V and gnd rails run the length of the pcb for easy deadbugging. Each IO pin has 2 connected empty holes. The input header is easly setup so you can cut traces and re-pin the main connector as you see fit. The pinout is 1USB 2GND 3A0 4A1 5RX 6 TX.
I have an always on electron in this enclosure reporting boat bilge temperatures and AC power status using a BME280 and reporting to thingspeak . The BME is inside the enclosure for durability but it also gives me an indication of heating from the electron. Yes there is some self heating from the electron but it seems to be negligible, less than 5 degrees F at freezing temps. As for solar heating the sun makes a wonderful heater. With the enclosure being black, it would be suggested to keep the enclosure in a shaded location, or paint it white.
