Mounting an IPAC...in metal?

[bigmoe]

So I have an IPAC on the way.  I'm not able to build a cab right now, so I am making plans to build sort of laptop panels that connect to a central box over db25.

I have discovered that for my purposes, it is easier to buy db25 switchboxes (I've only seen metal ones) and use the fully-wired female connectors in them than it is to buy the connectors from radio shack, buy a soldering iron (and accompanying paraphernalia), and try to resurrect some soldering experience from my student years.

So my probably somewhat blockhead question is: for the central box, should I even bother to disassemble it?  Why not just take the switchbox, clip out the switch, stick the IPAC/OPTIPAC in there, run the USB cable through the switch hole, and connect the switchbox's connectors right to the IPAC?  Will I run into problems, with static electricity or whatever, with mounting the IPAC in this metal enclosure?  I was thinking I would just superglue the nylon PCB standoffs in the box and mount the IPAC on it.

What do we think?

Thanks!

b

[eightbit]

Back up a second... I'm confused? Why do you think you need to solder?

[Tailgunner]

Only thing I'd question is super glue's ability to bond nylon to metal. Radio Shack has insulating circuit board standoffs that would work better. You'd have to drill the case for mounting screws, but once it's done you won't have to worry about the board coming loose and shorting out.

[bigmoe]

Back up a second... I'm confused? Why do you think you need to solder?

Yeah, that wasn't my clearest spate of communication.

Many people here have clipped db25 cables and just used the ends.  That makes perfect sense.  Usually, this is in the context of a panel that fits into a control box where the cabling is hidden.  However, my design is much more console-like: there is a central box (housing the IPAC and connected to the PC via USB) and a laptop-sized box for each player.  The player box can accept interchangable panels.  The player boxes are hooked to the central box using db25 cabling.  The central box has 4 female ends (which connect to the IPAC/OPTIPAC) and each player box has 1 female end (which connects to, eventually, the controls on the panel).

For my design, the use of clipped cables presents two problems: I need much more of one end type than the other (female), cables are expensive (even off of ebay), and these cable ends, which are encased in say plastic, are problematic to mount flush with the side of a wood box (a mostly-asthetic concern, true).

So I went to Radio Shack.  (I live in a medium-sized city which has no real alternative for electronic parts.)  They have db25 connectors, male and female, available individually.    The connectors appear mountable.  They have crimp-type and solder-type.  The crimp-type actually look like more trouble and less sturdy than the solder type.  But I would need 8 of them, all fully soldered.  That is a lot of trouble and expense--at least I think it is.  About this time, I noticed my printer sharing switchbox has female db25s on it.  I opened it up, and it is a very simple switching mechanism.  All of the female connectors look like they are removable, and all are fully-wired with a good 4-5 inches of wiring.  So I could disassemble this, use the parts, not have to solder or wire anything up myself.  (Buying these switchboxes are more expensive than buying the individual connectors from Radio Shack, but less expensive than buying the connects and a bunch of soldering equipment.)

When I thought about disassembling the switchbox, I began to think: why even take the db25s off the box?  Why not take the switch out of the box and put the IPAC in it?  Then this would become the central box to which each of the player boxes would connect.

[bigmoe]

Only thing I'd question is super glue's ability to bond nylon to metal. Radio Shack has insulating circuit board standoffs that would work better. You'd have to drill the case for mounting screws, but once it's done you won't have to worry about the board coming loose and shorting out.

I don't foresee drilling being a problem--a nice drill is one of the few tools I own--so the only quesion is whether I can get mounting screws long enough to do the job but short enough not to protrude so far through the case that they are longer than the rubber feet on the case.

But I had no idea there were insulating vs non-insulating stand-offs.  Thanks for pointing that out!

Using such stand-offs, do you think I will be safe from shorting out the board even with a fairly high degree of plugging and unplugging the cables?

[Tailgunner]

Here's the standoffs I was thinking about, they use seperate screws for mounting the standoff to the box and mounting the PCB to the standoff.
http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&product%5Fid=276-1381

Once it's mounted I'd tend to think you'd be hard pressed to knock the board loose. Only other shorting possibility I can see would be the extra wires in the box. From what I understand, you'll be using one of the prewired female DB25 connectors for your IPAC. A two position switch box would have three DB25 connectors, and once you cut out the switch there will be 50 extra wires floating around in the box. I would remove the extra DB25 connectors along with the switch and save them for a future project.