If you are an Arduino hobbiest like myself, you may have also come across the issue of wanting to mount the Uno or Mega boards in something other than the drab grey plastic boxes, like you can buy from RobotShop.
Don’t get me wrong, these are ideal enclosures for an Uno or Mega with none or one shield, even the Ethernet shield. But it’s not designed for the Ethernet shield with a PoE add-on, as it won’t fit. Or possibly even a single shield and then wires plugged into the shield’s headers. So a very basic and limiting case.
I have yet to come across any other cost effective Arduino enclosure that is available on the market. If they are out there, they are very hard to find. All I’ve found other than the case mentioned above, are expensive custom made cases that claim to be for the Arduino. And even so, how exactly will you mount them in your custom or generic case?
A larger issue with mounting an Arduino in custom case (regardless of cutting the openings) is the mounting hardware? There seems to be no one on selling standoffs and screws that will work in the limited space allowed for on the cramped circuit board, as actual Arduino mounting hardware. Common screw heads and mounting posts are typically too large for the Arduino boards, and will not fit or will make contact with circuit traces on the board.
So my post today is about the items I have sourced that seem to work well, to easily mount an Arduino board in a custom or generic enclosure. I have finally found screws with small enough heads to fit without grinding them down, and slightly smaller than typical standoffs mounts.
Here is what seems to work well for me, and were commonly in stock:
M2.5x5mm SS Pan Head Machine Screw #10079
Plastic Washers 6mm x 1.5mm from Canadian Tire (Part# 61-8086-2)
*** In-store purchase only it seems, but either supplier above should have similar.
The plastic washers I find help insulate the aluminum standoff from the bottom circuit traces, as they are still rather close to the 4.5mm standoffs. But if you are careful when you tighten them up, you may be able to get away with no plastic washers, but it’s more risky.
