CloneBox Project - House your existing, or newly built, Avalon unit, with STYLE

[sgrunger]

Hello everyone,

I have spent some spare time designing and coming up with a new design for Avalon's existing batch 1 and 2 designs, since, in my opinion, Avalon's case design is good engineering-wise, but design-wise, quite unfulfilling.

I want to check with the community and see if there sufficient interest for such a product, and I have contacts with many local suppliers that could be able to build these with a 3-4 week lead time approximately.

I am a full-time professional industrial designer and have worked on a wide variety of products, ranging from kitchen and wine accessories, toys, furniture, transportation and much, much more.

Here are a few images for you guys to ponder :

http://www.3dpxl.com/clone/highrez/ High resolution pictures available here.


Front view.


Rear view.


Side view.


Interior.


Exploded view of all components.


Overall dimensions, in millimeters.

Some key features : The chassis is built from two sheets of steel (or stainless steel, to be determined), and has custom-made machined aluminum faceplate. You would receive the chassis and simply take your existing Avalon PCBs, cables, components, and screw them in place. The case is a little wider than Avalon's current design - but the advantage here is having the ability to mount this chassis in a standard rackmount space.

There are still a few details to iron out, but I would say 90% of the job is done and, depending on the reaction I receive here, I will ask suppliers to provide quotes for 20, 50, or 100? of these and check back here with you guys.

In the event that I do start a crowd sourcing project for this I will gladly accept Escrow payments, and provide sufficient information to verify my identity to JohnKay or any person of authority on these forums.

If there isn't much interest for an Avalon chassis, I am also open to hear from you if you would rather have a Klondike housing, Burnin housing, or BitFury ?

Cheers.

[Sitarow]

Hello everyone,

I have spent some spare time designing and coming up with a new design for Avalon's existing batch 1 and 2 designs, since, in my opinion, Avalon's case design is good engineering-wise, but design-wise, quite unfulfilling.

I want to check with the community and see if there sufficient interest for such a product, and I have contacts with many local suppliers that could be able to build these with a 3-4 week lead time approximately.

I am a full-time professional industrial designer and have worked on a wide variety of products, ranging from kitchen and wine accessories, toys, furniture, transportation and much, much more.

Here are a few images for you guys to ponder :

http://www.3dpxl.com/clone/highrez/ High resolution pictures available here.


Front view.


Rear view.


Side view.


Interior.


Exploded view of all components.


Overall dimensions, in millimeters.

Some key features : The chassis is built from two sheets of steel (or stainless steel, to be determined), and has custom-made machined aluminum faceplate. You would receive the chassis and simply take your existing Avalon PCBs, cables, components, and screw them in place. The case is a little wider than Avalon's current design - but the advantage here is having the ability to mount this chassis in a standard rackmount space.

There are still a few details to iron out, but I would say 90% of the job is done and, depending on the reaction I receive here, I will ask suppliers to provide quotes for 20, 50, or 100? of these and check back here with you guys.

In the event that I do start a crowd sourcing project for this I will gladly accept Escrow payments, and provide sufficient information to verify my identity to JohnKay or any person of authority on these forums.

If there isn't much interest for an Avalon chassis, I am also open to hear from you if you would rather have a Klondike housing, Burnin housing, or BitFury ?

Cheers.

I like the professional looking solution this brings to the product line. I wonder if someone might be able to use it for their "clone" projects.

[Axion_Zen]

You should design one for K16/K64 you will probably sell a lot more of those vs cases for avalon boards

[sgrunger]

I like the professional looking solution this brings to the product line. I wonder if someone might be able to use it for their "clone" projects.

It could also be for someone who already owns one and wants to upgrade.

You should design one for K16/K64 you will probably sell a lot more of those vs cases for avalon boards

Yeah I thought about it. Where could I find a complete 3D model of a K16 and K64?

Added a poll to see the type of casing that would have the highest demand.

[Axion_Zen]

https://github.com/bkkcoins/klondike  should have them

[dogie]

The original cases are much, much stronger as they're all flat, plate steel. A folded sheet design requires a much thinner material. Theoretically remove the case 'cover' in that design, and the base of your case is very weak to crushing (shearing) forces.

Relatively not drastically weak compared to computer cases, but then again how many computer cases do you ship around the world 2-5 times in its lifetime?

[sgrunger]

The original cases are much, much stronger as they're all flat, plate steel. A folded sheet design requires a much thinner material. Theoretically remove the case 'cover' in that design, and the base of your case is very weak to crushing (shearing) forces.

Relatively not drastically weak compared to computer cases, but then again how many computer cases do you ship around the world 2-5 times in its lifetime?

The original case is a little over-designed in my opinion, as it is maybe a little too thick and too strong for what it really needs to be, and mostly only adds shipping weight. I have a mechanical engineer of 10+ years of professional experience who I have worked on commercial projects in the past that is helping me on this project as well. Should there be sufficient interest, I would have prototypes made before starting production to ensure that the quality is up to par.

Do you have any experience in designing, producing or testing metal casing enclosures?

[jspielberg]

Please add the the megabigpower.com's Bitfury m-board/h-board options to the poll!

[sgrunger]

Please add the the megabigpower.com's Bitfury m-board/h-board options to the poll!

Done! Those who had already voted can change their vote.

[sgrunger]

Seems like the majority is for a BitFury 400GH unit. I think I have an idea about what to do - I will come back with a design and post it soon !

[AdamKD]

The original cases are much, much stronger as they're all flat, plate steel. A folded sheet design requires a much thinner material. Theoretically remove the case 'cover' in that design, and the base of your case is very weak to crushing (shearing) forces.

Relatively not drastically weak compared to computer cases, but then again how many computer cases do you ship around the world 2-5 times in its lifetime?

1)  Original Cases are aluminum ....
2)  Bending aluminum strengthens the structure.  This isn't done by Avalon and not necessary.
3)  Folded sheet design does not require a much thinner material.

Edit:  If you are going with avalon case design the base should be made of aluminum at the least.  This allows heat to dissipate through the bottom.  Cases also shouldn't directly sit on one another and there should be a spacing between them so that air can pass through.

[allinvain]

The original cases are much, much stronger as they're all flat, plate steel. A folded sheet design requires a much thinner material. Theoretically remove the case 'cover' in that design, and the base of your case is very weak to crushing (shearing) forces.

Relatively not drastically weak compared to computer cases, but then again how many computer cases do you ship around the world 2-5 times in its lifetime?

1)  Original Cases are aluminum ....
2)  Bending aluminum strengthens the structure.  This isn't done by Avalon and not necessary.
3)  Folded sheet design does not require a much thinner material.

Edit:  If you are going with avalon case design the base should be made of aluminum at the least.  This allows heat to dissipate through the bottom.  Cases also shouldn't directly sit on one another and there should be a spacing between them so that air can pass through.

Are you sure about that? The cases were designed to be stackable. Also air is not likely to pass through unless you are actively pushing air against the underside of the case.

I agree though that aluminium is the ideal metal to use.

[dddbtc]

Could you design a housing for eighteen K16's and one bitburnerxx 20chip and one bitburnerx 10chip boards?

PM or email me at dddbtc@lavabit.com

[sgrunger]

Edit:  If you are going with avalon case design the base should be made of aluminum at the least.  This allows heat to dissipate through the bottom.  Cases also shouldn't directly sit on one another and there should be a spacing between them so that air can pass through.

Yeah - it could be easy to add a few laser-cut fins on the bottom part of the case and have it done in aluminum. You can see in my drawings, the small rubber feet adds space between the cases should they be stacked. On a rackmount enclosure, there would be even more space (4U).

Could you design a housing for eighteen K16's and one bitburnerxx 20chip and one bitburnerx 10chip boards?

PM or email me at dddbtc@lavabit.com

Sure it would be cool to do those - but as a one-off only for you it would be kind of hard. Also, with the K16, there doesn't seem to be one standard heatsink - so it would be hard to make a standard housing I think?

Demand in this case, according to the poll, would be for a Bitfury 400GH enclosure.

[Bitcoinorama]

Definitely an improvement, although I do like the rugged hex screw aesthetic of the of Avalons as well.

Umm...would it not make sense to allow one to affix a couple of fans at the rear above the PSU?

May as well have additional airflow if the ventilation has been added there...

[AdamKD]

Are you sure about that? The cases were designed to be stackable. Also air is not likely to pass through unless you are actively pushing air against the underside of the case.

I agree though that aluminium is the ideal metal to use.

I'm only speculatively certain about the spacing and have no contact with the person who did design it and no experience in case design.  Though, it makes sense.  

If you put heat paste between the heat sink and the base heat will dissipate into the structure better.  If the ambient temperature of the outside of the case is cooler than the inside the case then the case, due to it being of aluminum, should be acting like a heat sink due to extra surface area from the case being added to the heat sinks.  If you were to stack the cases without the spacing heat would pass from one case to the other and wouldn't exactly dissipate as well.  There's small spacing between cases as far as I can tell from pictures of people stacking them.