Garage Door Opener Pt.2 - Enclosure

[dclamp]

So I decided to make my web based garage door opener more permanent and safe by putting it in an enclosure. I went to Fry's (an electronics store near me) and they had project boxes starting at $15+ for a simple, thin plastic box. I decided to skip that and went to Home Depot and bought a junction box made of sturdy plastic and was mountable.






The first thing I did was figure out how I was going to lay out the two boards that I had: Ardunio and Relays:




Then I drilled holes for the USB port (for power), the Ethernet port, and for the screwdown terminals for connections to the relays. Originally I just drilled one hole for one relay, but later I drilled a few more.




I drilled holes in the bottom to match the wholes in the board and then screwed the boards down:




I then mounted the box above my garage door opener and ran the appropriate wires.






I am going to buy a Dremel drill for my future projects to make the holes look a little nicer. I also really like this junction box and will probably use it for future home automation projects, at least for the type of stuff that isn't a user-input device.

There are a few more pictures here

[dclamp]

After putting it up, I decided to put my key-switch that I bought a few years ago to use. I decided to add a "vacation mode" switch. When I toggle the key-switch, it disables the web interface. This is just in case someone manages to gain access to the web interface and our vacation calendar at the same time and plan a burglary; mostly I added it just because. Once I order a new contact switch (magnet switch), vacation mode will send us a text message if the garage door is opened in any way.