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Practical Electronics Editorial offices Practical Electronics Tel 01273 777619 Electron Publishing Limited Mob 07973 518682 1 Buckingham Road Fax 01202 843233 Brighton Email pe<at>electronpublishing.com East Sussex BN1 3RA Web www.electronpublishing.com Advertisement offices Practical Electronics Adverts Tel 01273 777619 1 Buckingham Road Mob 07973 518682 Brighton Email pe<at>electronpublishing.com East Sussex BN1 3RA Editor Matt Pulzer General Manager Louisa Pulzer Digital subscriptions Stewart Kearn Tel 01202 880299 Online Editor Alan Winstanley Web Systems Kris Thain Publisher Matt Pulzer Print subscriptions Practical Electronics Subscriptions PO Box 6337 Bournemouth BH1 9EH Tel 01202 087631 United Kingdom Email pesubs<at>selectps.com Technical enquiries We regret technical enquiries cannot be answered over the telephone. We are unable to offer any advice on the use, purchase, repair or modification of commercial equipment or the incorporation or modification of designs published in the magazine. We cannot provide data or answer queries on articles or projects that are more than five years old. Questions about articles or projects should be sent to the editor by email: pe<at>electronpublishing.com Projects and circuits All reasonable precautions are taken to ensure that the advice and data given to readers is reliable. We cannot, however, guarantee it and we cannot accept legal responsibility for it. A number of projects and circuits published in Practical Electronics employ voltages that can be lethal. You should not build, test, modify or renovate any item of mains-powered equipment unless you fully understand the safety aspects involved and you use an RCD (GFCI) adaptor. Component supplies We do not supply electronic components or kits for building the projects featured, these can be supplied by advertisers. We advise readers to check that all parts are still available before commencing any project in a back-dated issue. Advertisements Although the proprietors and staff of Practical Electronics take reasonable precautions to protect the interests of readers by ensuring as far as practicable that advertisements are bona fide, the magazine and its publishers cannot give any undertakings in respect of statements or claims made by advertisers, whether these advertisements are printed as part of the magazine, or in inserts. The Publishers regret that under no circumstances will the magazine accept liability for non-receipt of goods ordered, or for late delivery, or for faults in manufacture. Transmitters/bugs/telephone equipment We advise readers that certain items of radio transmitting and telephone equipment which may be advertised in our pages cannot be legally used in the UK. Readers should check the law before buying any transmitting or telephone equipment, as a fine, confiscation of equipment and/or imprisonment can result from illegal use or ownership. The laws vary from country to country; readers should check local laws. Practical Electronics | November | 2023 Volume 52. No. 11 November 2023 ISSN 2632 573X Editorial Upping your electronics housing game You’ve chosen or designed your project, sourced the components, populated the PCB, tested the circuit and… it works. Congratulations, but what now? Well, you need to ‘stick it in a box’. That’s the basic plan, but housing electronic circuits is not a trivial undertaking. A housing needs to protect your circuit – and, if it’s a mainspowered project – the user(s). It also needs to support and arrange all the connections, switches, pushbuttons, pots and displays that accompany the circuit. Last, but not least, after all the effort of design, assembly, testing and troubleshooting, it really should look the part. You want to be proud of the result, and ensure it is durable. Inevitably, this requires quite a lot of non-electronic skills: simple metalwork / ‘plasticwork’, such as drilling, sawing, filing and so on. At this stage it won’t have escaped your notice that goodlooking, well-made enclosures are not cheap. In fact, for simpler projects you often spend as much, if not more, on the box than on the circuit itself. Recycle old housings Often, you have two choices – buy new, or recycle. The latter is attractive but offers up one major problem. The front and back sections are often aluminium plates, which are – of course – already full of holes for the original circuit, along with legends describing their operation. The trick here is to buy a cheap, possibly very cheap dead unit and remove everything – including the front and back panels. Next, get some thick aluminium sheets cut to size to match the old panels. Now you can get to work, but plain aluminium can look a little tired and predictable, plus it is very soft, easily marred and any polish you apply will quickly fade as its surface corrodes in the atmosphere. What you need is a way of toughening up aluminium and giving it your own special ‘look’. Here’s where anodising steps in – it’s an electrochemical process that dyes, protects and strengthens the surface of aluminium. ‘That’s great, but how do I do it?’ I hear you cry. Well, in this month’s PE we will explain the method. This is not the kind of technique we will run regularly in PE – after all, this is an electronics magazine. However, I feel sure many readers will enjoy using this process to give their housings a smarter, more original look. Be safe! Just one thing – anodising does involve some unpleasant chemicals. Always work safely and make sure you understand the hazards. Inexperienced, especially younger, readers must seek supervision! Matt Pulzer Publisher 7