Rack mounted ECB-A10H plus several buck converters set to different voltages with a 12 and 24 volt switching power supply

[sam_sam_sam]

Last night when I was doing a Google search on the internet I was searching for empty rack mounted enclosures and I found this website where I found some 5u enclosures for a reasonable price these enclosures are being discontinued so for this reason until I place an order I not going to post the website link because I need to make sure that we are working Saturday if we are going to work Saturday then I will place the order tonight and I will post the website for them

I want to reuse my rack mount cart that I have not been using sense I have do my projects in my new shed but I going to have a battery testing machine rack cart .that I can have in the house where everything that is needed for battery testing is all in one place and neatly organized and organized for functionality

This is a project that I have wanted to do for a long time now that I have solved the mystery of what was causing my battery testing mosfet failures and now that I have solved the battery voltage connection issue I going to redo the battery cell holders on a new cutting board that mounts a rack mount shelf but the cutting boards will be removable so I can have the battery cells that I want to test I just put that cutting board on the the testing shelf and I am ready to go

I also going to build my own battery backup enclosure using one of rack mount enclosures that I am buying because the already built ones are very expensive so I going to take a battery backup that I already have and mount everything into this enclosure and go from there

I going to wait until I have the enclosure to know exactly what something “u” size I need for the EBC-A10H so I do not have so much cutting that I would have to do
Because I just want to cut an opening so that the battery testing machine slides into place and I just screw down the battery testing machine front face enclosure plate so it does not move around

I will post pictures of this project as I get certain things done to it so stay tuned for more details to come later

[sam_sam_sam]

I place an order for three 5u rack mount enclosures and one 1u rack mount enclosure and of course I spend a little bit more money than I was planning to do but because I did get free shipping for orders over $149.00 the 1u rack mount enclosure cost more than the 5u ones did but the 1u was not on clearance sale oh well it is what it is ( just three 5u enclosure the shipping would have cost $46.00 I would rather get a 1u for almost that much and I have something to show for it otherwise I was not planning on buying this one yet I was going to wait until I had most of this project finished except for the power outlets )

Here is the website for the rack mount enclosures that I bought

https://www.circuitspecialists.com/r..._v_JBo87Tfb6vj

I also figure out that the EBC-A10H will fit the 5u nicely and I will have enough room for the device that I want to put in this enclosure

The 1u enclosure I plan on putting ac outlets on it ( if they fit in this enclosure ) to make plugging in devices easier and the enclosure will all look the same except for 8 channel battery testing machine is white oh well you can have everything and no I am not going to spray paint it black to match everything else to much work and I afraid that it might turn out horrible and I do not want to chance it

One note on the 1u enclosure if the outlets do not fit I will go to a 2u enclosure and put other device stuff in it I have not decided yet what that is going be yet

And as far as the computer enclosure goes I am not impressed with the rack mount enclosure for computers they are mostly for min ATX motherboard or servers I want to use my HP Elite 8200 or Elite 8300 tower motherboard and the hardware for the hard drive and cd rom drive from a HP Elite 8200 or 8300 SFF computer and the switching power supply from the tower one the challenge is going to be to plan where everything goes before you start cutting on the enclosure ( unless I change my mind and use the HP Elite the one that I have that the switching power supply is external and if I can figure out how make it run on battery power and put a battery charger for the battery pack ( this is a maybe I still have things to work on this setup and do a proof of concept on this idea )

One note on this idea of running this computer on battery power I have two versions of the switching power for this computer the smaller switching power supply is going to be very difficult to do I have to look at the bigger switching power supply and see if this one is going to be easier to do or not

The planning of battery backup is also going to be a challenge as well for the same reason I going to reuse the screen on the battery backup as well as the front grill that the screen is housed in as well plus the circuit board and all of its components and battery packs as well plus the outlets as well

The EBC-A10H one is going to be a real challenge ( I plan on putting two of them in one enclosure ) because of the way the front panel is shaped around the panel because the cover screws to the front panel and the front panel is plastic wow for it to look professional this is going to be the real challenge

[sam_sam_sam]

I also had time to look at the small external switching power supply for the computer that I want to make it battery operated I finally finished taking the white caulking of this board on the secondary side of this switching power supply I did not damage it as far I know the power LED light came on and I put it off to the side and I will work on it again maybe tomorrow or Monday morning if I have time

I had bought two new EBC-A10H that was on clearance one of them worked perfectly fine I been using for about month now off and on so I decided today I would power up the other one I hooked up to a battery and set up the parameters and hit start no go this is not good so I took it apart to see if something did not get hooked up correctly or not so I checked the black main power connection to the battery to the mosfets board ready to go but the red wire was another story no go no connection so tested the red cable it self I have a connection but not to the inside connection what going on here with this well someone got a little carried away with the heat shrink tubing on the eyelid connector it was almost to the hole circle on the edge of round hole so it was not making a good connection to the banana connector wow I have not seen this before it just was to much heat shrink tubing in the wrong place

So I put everything back together and hooked up the battery setup the parameters and hit start joyful relief that there was nothing wrong with the testing machine other than the over use of heat shrink tubing on battery test lead eyelid connector

[sam_sam_sam]

Because I canceled the first order because they sent an email saying that the shipping cost was over $80.00

You have to be careful when ordering rack enclosures because the free shipping is only good if your shipping weight is less than 25 pounds and one 5u enclosure is 15 pounds so I only ordered 2 and the shipping cost was $30.00 s**t really I need to build this on eBay the cost of the enclosure are a lot higher and shipping is not any cheaper

Needless to say that my order was not as big and did not spend as much as I would have if I could have gotten the free shipping

Maybe in a couple of weeks or maybe next month I will order another 5u and a 3u and this will get through this project

[sam_sam_sam]

I do not currently have a narrow jigsaw that does not have a cord to get in the way

I did purchase a Ryobi jigsaw plus a 2 amp hour battery package that is on special buy for $69.00 it is not in the store however if you order it online you can have it tomorrow but you have your order in by a certain time of the day for this to happen

I going to make a jig so that the cutting of jigsaw can be completely straight I have done this before with a circular saw cutting plywood and it works really well I just going to the same thing with the jigsaw as well

Because doing this freehand is going to look like s**t and I want it to look professional and not looking like it was together and I want it to be professional looking battery testing machine computer rack cart that ( I can be proud of )

For the corners you just use a drill bit big enough to put the jigsaw in and then you just cut out the corners ones you have done this you can take a cut off wheel to smooth out the rough edges yeah I know that you should not use the side of the cut off wheel this way however you are only using slightest amount of pressure ( against the straight edge jig that you used for the jigsaw ) to just make the edge smooth and no more pressure than this is need

I am doing the computer enclosure first then I will do the battery testing machine enclosure and the last but not the only one will be the battery backup enclosure and if I have room I will have a surge protector enclosure but I have to wait until I have everything mounted and see how much room is left

[sam_sam_sam]

Well I got the 5u empty enclosures came last this afternoon well mounting the computer is not going to happen in this size enclosure because it does not have the depth it will barely fit the motherboard I might be able to do it because it has the height but the issue is going to be mounting the cd rom drive and the hard drive and switching power supply because they would be able to be mounted at the bottom of enclosure I would have mount it above the motherboard it going to be a very big challenge if it feeble or not I am going to have dry fit everything if it is possible or not mounting it is going to be the hardest of this endeavor time will tell me if it can be done or not

Now for the battery backup is hole another story it going to fit without any issues with the height of battery backup it fits in and room to spare so I can build the battery pack that I want to use in the first place but was not sure if it was going to fit I even have enough room to install two of them in the 5u enclosure so this will not be as much as a challenge as I thought it was going to be

The battery testing machine can fit 4 of them in one 5u enclosure I have to decide if I want to just put a plexiglass and just have the displays just showing or do I just cut out the front panel in the face plate of the 5u enclosure there is enough room for the heat sinks and then but they might have to mount above the two mounted on the bottom

So I decided to hold off buying the other two 5u enclosures that I was thinking about buying until I figure out how I going to do this

[sam_sam_sam]

Well I did roughly put 5u enclosure in the rack cart this part when well then I took apart the battery backup and things are not quite simple unless I can find a longer ribbon cable from the display board to main battery backup board then it would be a lot easier to I will have to post the cable and connectors or just splice wires to each end of the connector wires and make it as long as needed

The battery supply power wires need to be made longer so I can put a 7s 10p battery battery pack in side of the enclosure and have a way to mount it to the rack enclosure

The battery backup power output wire will have to be longer and I have cutout the hole for regular outlets and put a metal plate on them to make it look professional then I need to label them that they are battery backup outlets only then I also need make a surge plug protector rack for items that are connected to the battery backup

[sam_sam_sam]

I am still ironing out some issues with the rack cart spacing and the shelf that is mounted on the front and back rack rails so that the computers are stable and the shelves do not collapse but I might have a solution for this issue but I have to wait for some very heavy duty 1u blanks I have some that are heavy duty so lets see what the difference is in them and go from there

Or I am going to make my own front to back rails my self and use the blanks to hold them in place

The battery backup I am working on some issues with mounting the transformer and circuit board secretly to the front panel and mount the transformer to the bottom of the enclosure because I have to deal with wire cables length issues because I really do not want to have rewire everything I would like to only rewire just the battery power wires and be done with the wiring

[sam_sam_sam]

I finally got in the mail today this shelving rails which the only thing that is going to work with a little bit modification to the mounding bracket and cutting the mounting ears of the shelve that I already had that really did not fit correctly because the mounting ears do not have the right spacing to mounted to the support rails on the rail mount computer cart

Brand New 1U Rack Mount 4-Post Server Shelf Adjustable Rails bought these from this seller
https://www.ebay.com/itm/394791498095


The shelves that I have are similar to these that the ears mounting holes do not line up correctly so I am going to cut them off and mount them to the rails unit I did not buy them from this seller they are very similar to ones that I have

https://www.ebay.com/itm/26460761721...3ABFBMnrjOl81k

[sam_sam_sam]

Well I have the day off because of the weather although it nothing worse than a very bad thunderstorm so Jacksonville was spared again

https://www.ebay.com/itm/394791498095

I had some time to work on the computer rack shelf and used “Brand New 1U Rack Mount 4-Post Server Shelf Adjustable Rails” that I mentioned I had to modify the slide side mounting a little bit but the selves that I bought for this are not going to work on this adjustable shelving rails because of way it is made but it is extremely stable for putting two tower computers and a battery backup on it which is the more important thing and this is the reason for the over kill of this part of the project the rest of is going to be easier than this part

The other reason for the shelf being made to be over kill is so I have a place for the computer cables that would be hanging off of computer rail cart which I did not want to do because it is difficult to move to another location this is the motivation for the over kill of the shelf mounting needing to so stable

https://www.ebay.com/itm/152487027533 these are the shelves that I am referring to below ( one note the picture is not exactly what I received in the mail from the seller in the picture it shows the ends of the shelf is open it is not it has a rail that goes around the hole shelf which is better than the ends open because if that was the case I would have cut them to fit )

The two shelves that I bought are not going to be wasted I have another project that I going to do that I going to incorporate then into just have not thought to much about it yet I need to get this done I could cut them to fit but these are good quality shelves and this is one reason I do not want to cut them down to fit

I did put one shelf in for the mouse and keyboards for each computer just above the computers then the 8 channel battery testing machine then a 2u face plate where the battery holders are going to be mounted but they will be removable so that I can have one for 18650 and one for 21700 battery cells then a space for the single battery cell battery testing machine and a place for the battery pack to sit while testing it

So I need to decide weather or not to use a plastic cutting board as the shelf or cut a piece of sheet metal cut to size

I just priced two sheets of metal 18-1/8 “X 18-1/8 “ 20 gauge roughly $31.00 each and this includes shipping
plastic cutting board is around $9.00 no shipping I might go with this option
I would just have to make a jig to be able to cut it straight

I going to make a decision in the next couple of days to which direction I going to with this

[sam_sam_sam]

Here is a picture of the side rails installed and the keyboard and mouse shelf mounted this shelf might get moved up a little bit depending on weather or I decide to use the plastic cutting board or not

[sam_sam_sam]

I have decided to go with the metal shelf but because it is very thin metal I have to put support rails across the other way to make it sturdy hopefully I have some time to work on it this weekend

[sam_sam_sam]

Well I had time to work on the computer cart and put it together and spray paint the shelf here are some pictures of it being completed

I started putting the two computers and battery back up and put the eight channel battery tester back on this computer rack cart and then figure out how and where the next shelf will go and go from there

Well thing did not go as planned I have enough room for the two computers however the battery back up and line conditioner is not going to all fit so I have to make another strong shelf above the two battery backup and line conditioner on the bottom shelf and the two computers above that and then the eight channel battery testing machine

Now I have to decide weather or not to attach the other computer rail rack cart that I was going to use in the shed but I am considering buying another desk top computer rail rack cart and not use the wheels on it

[sam_sam_sam]

Here is what it going to look like when the other computer and battery backup and line conditioner are put on the shelves and then the eight channel battery testing machine goes on the very top space I might have to shim the computers in the middle to get them to be level but I have the hardest part done and to me it looks really good it being modified

The hole reason for doing this project was to make the most of the space that I wanted to use for this battery testing machine for the testing center and not have it take up so much bench space in my shed

I have decided that I going to use the other computer rail rack cart for the single battery testing machines but that is going to another very challenging project as well because of how many battery testing machines I want to use in it

[sam_sam_sam]

I have decided to buy another server cart because I have to put the monitor on the cart and not on the wall and it will give me more room for the other single battery testing machines but I have to wait a couple of weeks to have the money for the other server cart and then I can use the two shelves that I did not want to cut into two separate shelves and weaken them by doing that I will use the two shelves that I made in another location in the server cart

[sam_sam_sam]

Because my son is running two different computers and four different monitors and a room air conditioner all on the same circuit my power between the two different legs are very unbalanced I have to resolve this issue with putting two different circuits in his room for the computers and monitors and a separate circuit for the air conditioner unit

Because the room that I want to put my computers are on the same circuit leg as well so this is definitely not going to work

[sam_sam_sam]

I have had to put projects on hold for the time being because of having to work Saturdays and because I ran out of money to complete them at this point in time

Still have to work several more Saturdays and then I will have more time and money to complete some more of them

[sam_sam_sam]

I ordered another 22u server cart B&H Photo Video Audio

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...equipment.html

Which a few years ago I had bought one the plan is to join them together and and make one large server cart so I can put the new 40” inch TV on top of the server cart because I have two 38” X 18” shelf's that I did not want to cut in half so I decided that I going to take apart the server cart that I have now and use the rails on the shelves and the side panels

The reason for doing this is because a 38” X 19” server cart is very expensive to buy and sense I already have one server cart and the rails are what mount the devices I can build my own 38” X19” inch server cart

The two shelves that I made for the server cart that I have now I will still be reuse them so they will not be a waste of time for me making them

[sam_sam_sam]

Okay I just bought the 24s active balancer with the 24s single battery cell voltage meter so that I can make my BMS protection balancing system jig
because I found the active balancer at the price that I wanted to pay for one

https://www.ebay.com/itm/166662923558?var=466316382458

[sam_sam_sam]

Here is the 24s single battery cell voltage monitor module

https://www.ebay.com/itm/404214270802?var=674091247270

I had a hard time finding it this morning when I was looking for it

I almost thought that it was not available anymore which I would have been disappointed if this was the case