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Show off your project in a clear top tin
25 February 2014 | by We all want to package our electronics projects in some nice enclosure. An Altoids tin is often used – and I have used that a lot myself. But for slightly larger projects, the tin shown below is a better alternative. In addition it has a clear top, so displays can be viewed and the nice layout of your electronics can be admired.
I first learnt about these tins from the 4 State QRP Group. They advertised them as “Clear Top Enclosure – An Altoids On Steroids. Do you need an enclosure slightly larger than an Altoids tin? Would you like to see your project after building it, instead of hiding it? If so, this enclosure is for you!”
The rectangular hinged tins are no longer sold by the 4 State QRP Group, but I was able to buy them from Specialty Bottle via a friend of mine in the US (their minimum order for export was too high for me).
My projects from left to right and top to bottom are:
- Component tester (transistors, capacitors, resistors, inductors, equivalent series resistance) from Ebay based on this open source design.
- Direct digital synthesis (DDS) generator that generates RF from 0 to 20 MHz
- Ultimate2 QRSS kit transmitter from G0UPL
- 3.5 MHz Pixie transceiver
- AVR Butterfly Morse keyer from KD1JV
- Softrock Lite 6.2 SDR (Software Defined Receiver) in an enclosure which originally housed a 4.5″ USB flash disk.
4 Responses to “Show off your project in a clear top tin”
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Wow, Sverre, those make for a very attractive project case! The dimensions make it appear as though it could easily house an Arduino Uno. Can you confirm this? Also, does the plastic window appear to be reasonably durable? Could you drill it to attach a knob or switch, for example?
Yes, it even houses my Arduino Mega, but without any shield. The height may be a limitation – a closed tin is about 24 mm high as measured on the outside. The plastic window is somewhat flexible and definitely too thin for drilling. I have been afraid accidentally to touch it with my soldering iron as I fear that will burn a hole in it, but so far I have avoided that.
Check out Amazon.
Their reference is B00I3IENEA.
Tin with window 96mm x 59mm x 21mm.
73
The Amazon ones are slightly smaller, actually more or less like the Altoids tins.