Status panel for Rack box project

This page is kept for historical interest. It may document projects or methods that are obsolete and/or no longer relevant. The information here is not kept up-to-date.

This module was part of the rack box project — which was terminated when I moved out of my first apartment.

Status panel

A desk panel box full of LEDs, buttons and switches. Built for the rack box project.

Details

To get a sense of that was happening in the rack box project, and to be able to manually control stuff, I built a status panel that I had on my desk in the old apartment. It had LEDs, push-buttons and switches for pretty much everything in the rack box; lights, alarms, fan, mute etc. It was made of a desk box with an aluminium front plate, which made it pretty sturdy.

The panel connected to the rack box project with three d-sub cables; 9, 25 and 37 pins. If any of these cables were disconnected or the panel fuse burned out, a monitoring alarm would sound. There was also a microcontroller module inside the panel, controlling a few LEDs, switches and the emergency control. This was connected to my computer with a serial cable.

The voltage levels in the rack (5, 13.8 and 24) were available through lab plugs, pretty handy when testing stuff. They had a dedicated automatic fuse, so not to take the whole rack box down in case of a short.

The panel had three states;

• On, all LEDs, buttons and switches worked.
• Off, all buttons and switches worked, but the LEDs were turned off.
• Disabled, all LEDs were turned off, buttons and switches were disabled.

At the center of the panel was a key switched, used to arm and disarm the intruder alarm. The the intruder alarm was armed the panel went into the disabled state. The emergency stop could also be triggered, and reset, from this panel.

This status panel was very analog and not something I would have built today, but in 2006 it was not as easy to get a fancy dashboard on the computer as it is today. Just doing changes to this panel was pretty tricky and time consuming... Today one can just use something like Home Assistant.

Connectors

Internal

1. 12v +
2. 12v -
3. Emergency shutdown +
4. Emergency shutdown -
5. Emergency shutdown reset to relay
6. Emergency shutdown reset to Emergency shutdown unit
7. Emergency shutdown trigger to Emergency shutdown unit
8. Emergency shutdown LED from Emergency shutdown unit
9. Lifesignal from Digital emergency interface module to Module stability monitoring unit 2
10. 12v -

9-pin

1. Stack lights green (Signal and lights controlling unit)
2. Rack temp alarm (Fan and temperature unit)
3. Stack lights yellow (Signal and lights controlling unit)
4. Rack fan (Fan and temperature unit)
5. 12v +
6. Supply error (Main monitoring unit)
7. Stack lights red (Signal and lights controlling unit)
8. Serial Server timeout (Main monitoring unit)
9. Fuse error (Main monitoring unit)

25-pin

Pin	Color	Function
1.	Pink	Deactivate emergency shutdown strobe (Emergency shutdown unit)
2.	Blue	Buzzer
3.	Gray	Activate panel
4.	Yellow	Panel active
5.	Purple	Lifesignal from Digital emergency interface module to Module stability monitoring unit 2
6.	Black	Oven disengaged LED (Oven and signal unit)
7.	Green	Porch door LED (Multi-purpose module 1)
8.	Red	Light sensor (Light sensor)
9.	Brown	Test voltage on/off
10.	White	Return - (to Multi-purpose module 1)

37-pin

1. 12v -
2. Module error LED
3. Mute LED (Mute and illumination controlling unit)
4. Amber LED (not connected in rack)
5. Low voltage, yellow LED
6. Rack box door (Mute and illumination controlling unit)
7. Rack box lights (Mute and illumination controlling unit)
8. Light control unit 3 LED
9. Light control unit 2 LED
10. Light control unit 1 LED
11. Light control unit 3 Switch
12. Light control unit 2 Switch
13. Light control unit 1 Switch
14. Rack box lights switch (Mute and illumination controlling unit)
15. System mute switch (Mute and illumination controlling unit)
16. Fan switch (Fan and temperature unit)
17. Emergency shutdown unit +
18. Emergency shutdown unit -
19. Emergency shutdown unit Trigger
20. Emergency shutdown unit LED
21. Emergency shutdown unit Reset
22. Alarm LED
23. Panel error LED (Multi-purpose module 1)
24. Key switch N.C
25. Key switch N.O
26. Return + (to Multi-purpose module 1)
27. Button by blue LED
28. Light control unit lights out 45 sec
29. Light control unit auto light
30. Green center LED
31. Red center LED
32. Oven disengaged manually (Oven and signal unit)
33. IR sensor 1 LED (Multi-purpose module 1)
34. Red LED (Not connected in rack)
35. Lights living room off (Multi-purpose module 1)
36. Module stability monitoring unit 2 Reset
37. Module stability monitoring unit 2 LED

Gallery

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  Predecessor status panel

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  Planning on paper

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  Hulls for connectors

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  Guide holes

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  Almost completely drilled

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  Front plate complete

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  9- and 37-pin D-sub installed

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  9-pin D-sub connected

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  Almost halfway

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  37-pin D-sub in the Rack box

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  Inside

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  Half full

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  37-pin connector

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  Status panel 06/01/07

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  Status panel 14/04/07

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  Status panel, Digital emergency interface module installed

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  Status panel 07/11/07

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  Status panel, connectors

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  Status panel

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