Any ideas on redoing my mega control box ?

[rgabr0]

Hi all,
Wanting some advice on ideas and getting to know how people generally set up a mega control box this would be in my garage, it’s a 600 x 800 industrial control box with cable routing parts that are fully moveable. I have a f16v3 and one expansion board. A dmx control board, 3 x 12v supply’s 2 x 5v supply’s a raspberry pi 5 for fpp, a router a switch and want to include doen vans for ventilation . I have no idea how to start to maximise my space in here but are happy to here suggestions and see what everyone has done i have attached images of the box and all the boards and power supply’s. had to seperate images due to limit

 

[rgabr0]

The rest of photos

 

[merryoncherry]

First, how far is this control box enclosure from the things it will be controlling? This will affect whether one "mega control box" is a good idea or it is better to use smaller boxes. (Even if you have to buy them, you'd otherwise be buying wire / dealing w/ voltage drops.)

The F16 should be adjacent to the expansion board so that the ribbon cable reaches in a straight shot (maybe under the board so that it doesn't block everything, see below). Place that combo somewhere, and see how the PSUs and DMX would align around it, and how you'd route the cables out of it.

Are you making a bottom plate so you can put glands or other strain relief on each output? I have doubts that the slotted wiring duct is worth it, certainly not all of it, as there aren't enough wires going around the edge like that and they won't make a suitable strain relief for controller pigtails.

As for mounting the boards in the enclosure, some backing plate would be nice to have, something you can drill without making fine metal shavings everywhere... this would range from thin plywood or plastic kitchen cutting boards to HDPE or acrylic.

F16 mounting image below is not mine, just what I could find off the internet:

 

[rgabr0]

It’s within about 10m of everything it controls i have 2 other boxes with 8 port baldrick boards and power supply’s.

yes i will have a bottom plate with glands for relief. i have butt tons of wire and power injection boxes ready for the display

 

[merryoncherry]

How much of the display is 5V and how much is 12V? Is it 12V for the DMX, and 12V for the F16, and 5V for the expansion (making total of the 5 PSUs you have)?

 

[rgabr0]

so my mega tree and other items such as 10 mini trees, a fair few snow flakes and other random stuff is 5v and everything else is 12v so a 2440 pixel matrix, spinners, signs, icicles, roof outline and all that. I have a total of like 15 12v supplies available new in box and i have 5 5v ones and 3 24v for some random reason. But if i can fit it i want to have 4-5 12v supplies coming form the box for power inject lines instead of separate power inject boxes

 

[rgabr0]

also i want to say holy my man you have so many lights how dose one acquire such quantity? I only wish to have that much if i had the money i would make every surface on my house just lights

 

[merryoncherry]

also i want to say holy my man you have so many lights how dose one acquire such quantity? I only wish to have that much if i had the money i would make every surface on my house just lights

Spread over several years. Part of it though is that I do as much as I can the same, so things are interchangeable in the field and I don't have to put much time into thinking / planning... so all 3-prong 120VAC (USA standard), all CAT5, all xConnect factory cables and tees, almost all 12V with the same PSUs (except 2 self-contained items), many smallish controller boxes of similar designs (32 pixel+4 diff, 16+4, 8-port Baldrick, 4/8-port dumb receiver; ethernet switches in all the controller boxes for easy splitting/chaining). Everything within 10m of a controller, almost everything within 5m, well over half within 3m, so hardly any custom PI boxes (2 of the longer matrix are 12-port dumb receivers with extra PSUs, they can attach to any controller with the 4 diff ports on it). I do have a handful of 48-port controllers in inventory but last year I only used 1 of them.

That said, there are a fair number of people on the site that use a bigger controller enclosure, but some are 24V with step-downs and others are all differential until they get to the props. Lots of ways to successfully make a great show. So I'm probably the worst person to give you suggestions... I tend to think about what is the most flexible to install, but you've got a lot of PSUs and wire and stuff just sitting there and trying to think how to use it.

 

[rgabr0]

Nice, i will take that too note as i also want to make everything easy and moveable around in the display

 

[Indigogyre]

Let me start by saying currently everything I have for the show is outside on my front porch for the entire show season. Personally, I do not like the idea of one mega enclosure to put everything into it. There is a lot of interference that can be going on. In one control box I have my wireless router, an 8 port switch and my show PI. My transmitter is located outside of that box with the radio to play music. I dislike opening controller boxes unless I have to and splitting things up eases my mind. 10m is a long way to run some pixel data and hope there is no signal or voltage drop before it gets there. I've been wanting to redo how I work and move everything except my controllers into the garage and only run networking from the "control center" to all the controllers. This way I can have the controllers as close to the props as possible and use shorter extension cables.

First - 32 port F16v4 (Yard)
Second - 16 port F16v4 (1/2 Garage)
Third - 16 port F16v4 w 12 receiver ports (Second Floor)
Fourth - 16 Port F16v3 ( MegaTree)
5,6,7 - 8 Port Baldric8s (2xPorch, 1/2 Garage)

I currently have a few controller boxes in the process of being built.

Everyone does things differently. Just look to se what fits your situation the best.

 

[Domestos]

Hi @rgabr0 I've got a similar box I've built and could share some insights.

My build is not a s complicated as yours, as all my props are 12V, but happy to meet up and discuss.

PS: I'm also located in Brisbane, and love working on controller boxes.

 

[rgabr0]

Oh yeh nice will keep that in mind Im just sorting out a couple other things then will probably be in contact for some help with it