In the near future I want to move my FlightFeeder outdoor so that I can place my antenna higher.
Does anyone here have experience with placing the FlightFeeder in an outdoor enclosure?
Whats is the temp inside your enclosure?
Pictures of the enclosure and the inside would be great for my inspiration 
Hello GitseBase,
Funny you should say that. I am in the process of doing just that.
It is 5:30pm here now so it is starting to get a bit dark outside so tomorrow if I get a chance, I will take a few photoās and post my āin-progressā creation and ideas.
I have 4 x Raspberry Piās and a FlightRadar24 which I will run externally with Netgear Switch, when you see the photoās it will explain a lot to you.
Regards,
Nigel
YARM.Armidale
Armidale NSW Aust.
I think youād need to shield the enclosure with a sheet metal cape - maybe held 5cm from the enclosure - designed to keep direct sun off the box and to allow free air to cool the cape.
Iām also going to put my FR24 in the enclosure.
Due to the expected high temps I donāt want to put a switch (that generates heat) inside the enclosure.
My plan is to run LAN cables (one for FR24 and one for FF) inside an underground PVC pipe from the house to the antenna pole that is 5 meters from the house.
Inside the enclosure Iāll have a electric outlet to plug in the FR24 and FF receivers.
The remaining socket can be used to install a fan if that is necessary.
Shielding the enclosure might be a challenge but Iāll see what can be done construction wise.
I took my enclosure and put a thermometer in it to see how hot it getās inside when exposed to the sun. Itās a cloudy day today so there is no direct sunlight for my test. Guess Iāll have to wait another day.
Hi GitseBase,
I have the photoās but could not post them here - not sure why. Anyway, sent you a personal message via here.
Nigel
You need to have a couple of posts first before you can post pictures.
Temperature inside the enclosure is 45C at midday.
Iām looking at building an outdoor enclosure for a Raspberry Pi, dongle, and long-range wifi adapter. There are two places that it could be located, one is in direct sunlight and the other would be shaded by a solar panel, but still exposed to 100F temperatures in the summer.
In testing, the entire system is drawing 3-5 watts which would mostly be dissipated as heat inside the enclosure. This is fine in the winter when the heat will help keep everything a little warm and fight condensation, but in the summer this could become an issue.
Is it better to have a vented enclosure for better heat dissipation, or a sealed one to keep moisture, dirt/dust, and critters out?
Shaded is always better. The less exposure to the elements the better I would say.
You now the conditions at your location better then any one of us.
For example: due to temperature concerns I would like to have a small fan running to remove heat from the enclosure. But when the tropical rains hit with the high winds Iām afraid that moisture will be blown into the enclosure. My setup might work at other locations but at my location it will most likely be problematic.
If you have ventilation holes i would advise to put some sort of mesh material to keep larger critters out.
Metal box with the fan inside to move internally generated heat to the box where hopefully air movement outside will take it away.
make the box big enough so lots of surface area - also would have room to bolt on heat sinks with vanes for more moving air heat transfer.
Moisture is definitely a concern here in the winter (USA Pacific Northwest). Iām leaning towards a sealed enclosure, but will certainly need to take some steps to mitigate thermal issues in the summer. I just bought a few more Piās for torture testing to see what they can withstand. I also have setup a sealed box outside at work with a temperature data-logger, but with my luck today was overcast and cool.
For me it wasnāt the Pi that died from the heat, it was the R820T dongle. Iān your situation itās run it without a cover on the board. (I think we push then to do more work than receiving TV would do)
Thatās interesting and makes since, but I had not thought about that. The case is definitely warm and does not look like itās setup well for airflow. I cracked it open and was surprised that there was no shielding of any kind inside. Other than keeping everything from shorting out, is there any reason to worry about running it without itās case?
As you say be careful with layout so it doesnāt short.
I got one of these: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NZ2I6QA?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_search_detailpage
Yes, I know, it costs a lot of money for what it is, but it is constructed very well and keeps the SDR away from touching anything (while providing some shielding)
Hi all.
Iām new to here, but I will just share some pictures of my prototype, still under testing though.
Iām using an IP65 classed enclosure, that will be mounted about 1.5m from the antenna. It will be shielded from the sun by a part of the roof (if the Mrs approvesā¦) The unit get its powered via PoE.
At the moment the outside temp is 25 C, and
/opt/vc/bin/vcgencmd measure_temp
shows 46 C, my second unit that hangs free in the air shows 40C. I will run it a couple of days on the ground before I climb up and install it.
Anyone knows what is the max temp for the USB dongle?
Here are some pictures (had some problems with the āImg functionā so here is a link)
http://imgur.com/a/HUfsa
I just order one of these for my NooElec NESDR Mini 2 (The blue stick). Hoping Iāll get a little boost after the RF shielding is in place.