The faceplates and shelves from NovexComm have arrived. I am still waiting on the cabinet from AudioRax but that may be well into September before it arrives as it is custom built. The faceplates were custom designed by NovexComm but they were not as difficult to make, just tell them what I want, they drew it out in CAD and after a couple tweaks they sent the design to the water cutter. After that it is a powder coat and shipping.
The OCD part of me had me run out to Ace Hardware for a can of Hammer Black spray paint. In prior builds I could see parts of the DIN sleeve peaking out and they were silver-grey, contrasting with the black radio and faceplates. I spray-painted the DIN sleeves and inserted them into the faceplates and they look much better.
Here are a couple BCT15X's that I had laying around in the garage already with the outer cases removed. They show how close they needed to be to fit a 3u faceplate. This particular faceplate has the mount for the SDS200 to the left, notice the mouse hole for the Ethernet cable? That was suggested by my guy at NovexComm and was a nice touch. It showed that he is familiar with the scanner models as well.
Here are all three faceplates, the one on the left fits the IC-7300 or IC-9700 and the one on the right the R8600. Both of these faceplates use shelves to support the radios with the SDS and DIN radios will not. This shows the approximate spacing after they will be installed in the cabinet, there will be about 3/4 to an inch above and below the panels for the cabinet itself.
I am really looking forward to the cabinet getting here! I have everything ready and set up to go. I want to do neat wire management on this build so I have longer power cables that will be cut or bundled to fit. The antenna cables will be managed to the top of the case while the power will be managed to the bottom and I am not sure how the data cables will be routed. Each radio has a USB cable and 4 have Ethernet so I will likely have a switch and a hub in the cabinet as well as a PowerPole panel and multicoupler.
The OCD part of me had me run out to Ace Hardware for a can of Hammer Black spray paint. In prior builds I could see parts of the DIN sleeve peaking out and they were silver-grey, contrasting with the black radio and faceplates. I spray-painted the DIN sleeves and inserted them into the faceplates and they look much better.
Here are a couple BCT15X's that I had laying around in the garage already with the outer cases removed. They show how close they needed to be to fit a 3u faceplate. This particular faceplate has the mount for the SDS200 to the left, notice the mouse hole for the Ethernet cable? That was suggested by my guy at NovexComm and was a nice touch. It showed that he is familiar with the scanner models as well.
Here are all three faceplates, the one on the left fits the IC-7300 or IC-9700 and the one on the right the R8600. Both of these faceplates use shelves to support the radios with the SDS and DIN radios will not. This shows the approximate spacing after they will be installed in the cabinet, there will be about 3/4 to an inch above and below the panels for the cabinet itself.
I am really looking forward to the cabinet getting here! I have everything ready and set up to go. I want to do neat wire management on this build so I have longer power cables that will be cut or bundled to fit. The antenna cables will be managed to the top of the case while the power will be managed to the bottom and I am not sure how the data cables will be routed. Each radio has a USB cable and 4 have Ethernet so I will likely have a switch and a hub in the cabinet as well as a PowerPole panel and multicoupler.
