[0:00] So I’ve got a bunch of PCBs with PCBWay and that’s for the ESP32TV project.
[0:05] So I thought I’d crack on with a few other projects.
[0:07] So one of the ones I’ve got needs quite a beefy power supply.
[0:11] So this is an LRS-200-24. So that’s 24 volts with 8.8 amps.
[0:16] Now it’s pretty good but one of the things that I’m slightly worried about
[0:20] is the mains connections are just bare open
[0:23] and knowing my clumsiness I’ll probably electrocute myself.
[0:27] So first step is to make it a bit safer.
[0:30] So I popped off to Thingiverse and this is the first thing I came across and I printed it.
[0:34] And the results not particularly good.
[0:37] So I printed it with support and maybe I could get all of this support off
[0:42] but it’s pretty unlikely. It’s all over the place.
[0:46] Not a great result.
[0:48] I find with 3D printing I have to relearn a lot of things I learned previously.
[0:53] One of the problems I’ve got is I’m trying to fit one of these connectors in.
[0:57] The issue with this is with the screw lugs it’s surprisingly wide.
[1:03] It’s also quite deep.
[1:05] Once the cables are plugged into this you need quite a bit of depth.
[1:09] So you need quite a big box.
[1:10] So my next attempt I quite like printing boxes in two parts.
[1:15] So I printed this.
[1:18] Obviously the printer didn’t quite manage to print this very well
[1:22] but we do have the hole in the top for the power connector.
[1:26] So that would slot nicely in there.
[1:28] And then my thinking was I’ll screw this together
[1:32] and then there’s holes here for the sockets to plug power from.
[1:38] Doesn’t quite work. Not ideal really.
[1:42] The main issue is this connector is just way too big.
[1:47] I’m not sure what this is from.
[1:49] I think it’s another attempt at printing something.
[1:52] I think in this case I just printed the top part.
[1:54] Obviously this fits in nicely but we’re missing the rest of the box.
[1:58] Which I think led me on to this next attempt which was printing the box in various different parts.
[2:06] I think at this point I’d abandoned the attempt to actually fit this connector in
[2:11] and I was just going to thread the cable through this small hole.
[2:14] Not entirely sure what I was thinking here.
[2:18] It looks quite nice.
[2:20] We’ve got nice little air vents.
[2:22] I think my plan was that somehow I would glue all of this together or maybe screw it together.
[2:29] There’s some screw holes there and then it would kind of hang together like that.
[2:36] Obviously slightly silly.
[2:38] So that didn’t work at all either.
[2:42] So I’ll put that on the printing scrap heap.
[2:45] So the main issue I’m having is basically this connector is just too wide.
[2:49] So you can’t… anything you do involves printing quite a big box.
[2:54] So then I thought, well I’ll just look online and find some smaller connectors.
[2:59] So I’ve done that.
[3:00] These are actually just push fit ones which is much more sensible.
[3:03] So they still have the connector and a fuse
[3:07] and I’ve got a nice switch that will glow when it’s turned off and on.
[3:11] Now the nice thing about these connectors compared to these
[3:14] is these are actually pretty much the same width as the power supply.
[3:19] So I think we can print something that will work with these.
[3:22] So rather than spend seven hours printing a whole thing, which is what I had been doing,
[3:26] instead I just printed the front panel which is much more sensible.
[3:31] So this one this fits quite nicely into this hole with a bit of brute force.
[3:39] But I messed up the switch hole.
[3:44] So this hole is nowhere near big enough.
[3:46] So not ideal.
[3:48] But fortunately that just took an hour or so to print.
[3:50] So we did it again and this one has the perfect hole for the switch.
[3:55] That fits in nicely.
[3:56] These sockets fit in the circular holes very well and this fits as well.
[4:02] So that’s fantastic.
[4:03] So what I’ve gone for now is this tubular construction.
[4:08] So we have our front panel here for the power connector, the switch and the outlet sockets.
[4:14] And this will just slide nicely onto the power supply.
[4:18] And then we’ll just put some small bolts into these holes and screw it into place.
[4:23] So I’ve got a bunch of crimped wires.
[4:28] So I’ve crimped some connectors on the end of these ones.
[4:31] So these will be soldered onto the sockets.
[4:34] So we’ll have a red and a blue to each socket going to the power outputs.
[4:40] And then I’ve also got these mains power cables.
[4:44] So these little loops will loop from the power inlet over to the switch.
[4:52] So we’ll have live.
[4:55] I think that’s live.
[4:57] And we’ll have neutral going over to here.
[5:09] And then these three cables will take the earth from the connector.
[5:13] And we’ve got live and neutral going to the power supply.
[5:17] So hopefully we’ll be able to thread all these through here and get them hooked up.
[5:23] I think the only painful bit is going to be screwing the bolts onto these power sockets here.
[5:31] That’s going to be a bit fiddly because I need to get my fingers in
[5:34] and then turn it around with the cables already soldered on.
[5:38] So I’m going to give that a go next and we’ll see how we get on.
[5:42] So that’s these sockets nicely wired up.
[5:44] I only forgot the heat shrink maybe five times and had to redo them.
[5:49] But they’re all done now.
[5:50] So now it’s just a case of turning these wires through and then bolting these sockets on.
[5:56] So I’ll do that now.
[5:57] I won’t force you to watch that quite painful process because it’s going to be a bit fiddly.
[6:03] Well that was actually much easier than I expected.
[6:07] It’s not very well lined up but it’s an artisan piece of kit.
[6:12] So handmade - that’s how you can tell.
[6:14] So now we just need to get the switches and the socket wired up.
[6:19] So we’ve already got the two loops for the live and the neutral.
[6:24] Let’s put the earth wire on as well.
[6:28] So that’s those.
[6:32] Now we just need to thread all of these through.
[6:35] And I think I’ll put it this way around.
[6:40] And I just need to make sure that these two loops pop out of the holes.
[6:46] I can actually plug them into the socket.
[6:49] Okay so that’s that socket in place with the earth wire.
[6:54] And we’ve got our live and neutral coming out here.
[6:57] Now we can connect the live and neutral to the switch.
[7:05] So that’s neutral and live.
[7:10] And then we just make sure we get the matching neutral and live on this side.
[7:16] Let’s stick these through here.
[7:21] Get them out of the way.
[7:23] And then we need neutral will go on this side.
[7:33] Get on neutral and then live goes on this side.
[7:38] Get on there.
[7:41] Okay let’s double check.
[7:46] Yep that all looks good.
[7:48] And then is it going to fit?
[7:52] Yep.
[7:52] So now hopefully that should just slot in there.
[7:58] Wow goodness me.
[8:02] That’s done.
[8:02] Now I just need to screw it all up to the power supply.
[8:07] So let me do that and then we’ll give it a test run and see if it actually works.
[8:13] Okay we’re almost there.
[8:16] I think I need to make a bit more room or possibly reduce the length of my wires.
[8:21] Everything’s wired up but let’s unplug that.
[8:29] But it’s quite hard to actually squeeze all of these wires in and close it up to the screw hole.
[8:37] So I think what I might do is reprint this slightly longer or maybe I’ll just reduce the
[8:44] length of some of these wires.
[8:46] They’re a bit excessive at the moment.
[8:49] However we can now close it almost completely.
[8:54] And if we plug in we can turn our switch on.
[9:00] We have our nice light.
[9:02] And if I plug in a little socket here…
[9:05] Let’s see.
[9:11] We should get…
[9:14] 24 volts.
[9:19] So that’s not bad.
[9:21] So almost there and that was kind of a fun little printing project.
[9:25] I’ll come back.
[9:27] I think maybe we’re getting everything a bit squished inside here.
[9:30] So maybe another couple of centimeters or so.
[9:35] Or maybe two or three centimeters longer and that will give us plenty of room for the cables.
[9:40] But I’m going to call this a success for now.
[9:42] So hopefully see you soon with some more projects and some exciting fun stuff with some PCBs
[9:48] from PCBWay.
[9:49] So catch you soon!