Once more I started talking in the for sale post. . . sorry!
1) Power supply- my intention is to borrow/buy a clamp on ammeter and get a better idea of the actual draw on each voltage before I go the picopsu route. In reading the
manual for those, they call for forced air cooling and derating (pg 3) if you are close to the max, so I want to make sure I account for that, either getting airflow there, or picking a large enough unit so that I'm not pushing it. I'll post my results here.
2) Wall mounting- I've had a 5055B mounted in the wall for close to 4 years like this-
Kind of hard to see- here is what a unit out of the wall looks like- (bottom)
And top- note the small overhang- this is also present on the the sides of the unit.
BTW, this idea came from one of the other 5055 users.
A) Cut a hole in the wallboard that is the size of the back portion of the unit.
B) Attach a longish softish spring inside the wall, towards the back of the cavity, taking into account the length of the spring.
C) Plug cables onto the bottom of the unit (network and power)
D) Place bottom of the unit into the hole, and hook the spring to the upper corner(s) of the unit (I just did one). Easy on the 5055 because there are tapped holes.
E) Tip the top of the unit in flush to the wall- spring tension keeps it there, all weight is down on the wallboard.
Now, look at our units-
I'm seeing a very familiar overhang. ;-)
Once the power supply is taken care of, and the whole heavy base comes off. . .
The back portion is just less than 2.25", leaving over an inch of breathing space for the fans in a standard 2x4 wall. I would NOT put it in an insulated bay!
Should be pretty easy to attach a mounting point or two to the plastic case near the top for a retaining spring. The bottom is sloped a little more that the 5055, and the connectors won't really hold it in the same way. I will probably add a little ledge to hook behind the drywall for security along that edge. Or maybe cut a notch in the plastic shell- although that destroys the resale. ;-)
If it feels heavier than the 5055 (doubtful, that unit has a cast metal heat dissipating case), I might reinforce the drywall along the bottom edge.
Mounted like this it will stick out about 2.5". I'd monitor the temperature to make sure there is enough cooling, but I expect it would be fine. I'd also use sleep mode pretty aggressively, which should help with the overall thermal load.
Converting to 12V picopsu lets me meet code by not burying 110 connectors in the wall. . . just 12v and network. I stay in the original case (note that though plastic, it has been flashed for EMI reduction) too.
Thoughts? Comments?
Markd