im searching for a heavy duty road case to house my laptop and B100
for portable use.
Optionally would like to stick some gel cells in there while away from
AC power.
I am thinking putting the laptop and usrp side be side on the top
with batterys underneath, or laptop on top, usrp / battery under.
Laptop pulls 20V, USRP 6V. Probably need to create a custom power
supply / charging circuit?
I checked the pelican line. the 1600 series looks like it might work…
Has anyone ventured into a project like this? If so i would like to
see case / construction pics.
thanks
dave
cool! just what i am thinking about. I assume you used the pick and
pluck foam?
what size battery did you use and is it attached directly to the USRP,
or did you need a regulator?
Dave, I’ve built a few systems like this using Pelican case’s or cheaper
knock off’s.
Rather than go for a “side-by-side layout” which is hard to accommodate
in common Peli case sizes, I buried the gel cells and USRP deep in the
foam under the laptop. By making the USRP fit snuggly in the foam I was
able to build an effective plenum using the USRP’s built in fan so that
not only did the USRP get sufficient air, but the gel cells and laptop
underside received forced airflow, with exhaust and intake air returned
to the surface of the open case via some carbon fiber pipe off cut’s I
had handy. Standard auto shop stuff was best to build the high current
wiring and source switches for ON/OFF/CHARGE selection, and I recall
sourcing a decent weather proof connector for the charging from Western
Marine which got silicone sealed into the one hole I cut in the case.
These were all used in applications that used small antenna’s, so I
mounted an SMA on a foot or so of thin coax directly to a custom bracket
I fabricated and attached inside the lid so it was approx vertical when
the lid was open. In all case’s the laptop was never charged by the gel
cell’s, they only ran the USRP which I recall gave a fairly balanced run
time for the system as a whole.
I’m afraid I didn’t take pictures of any of these builds.
-Ian