sudomod

Does anyone have any idea where i might procure some small magnets to possibly use for the back battery panel?

They are selling rare earth magnets on ebay in nearly every shape.

I had this idea some time ago and still waiting on mine to arrive.. here are the ones that I ordered http://www.aliexpress.com/item/10pcs-Ne ... 15020.html they are 1mm thick by 5mm diameter, they should be very strong! You can get them as small as 3mm diameter but I thought that these may break free of glue too easily (super glue should be used, not hot glue).

That is a great idea! I may look into this as a solution to hold the top part of the case together instead of making a screw hole bracket. I wonder though if rare earth magnets may be too strong? I will look into small magnetic cabinet catches as an alternative.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/plastic-small-m ... omXbJTT69w

Would using magnets mess with the circuitry?

Ganreizu wrote:Would using magnets mess with the circuitry?

Not unless you had a compass. There are already powerful magnets in speakers in electrical devices so some static magnets should be fine. The inductance from high frequency switching regulators is probably in the same ballpark and they do fine. I've never heard a magnet bring down a Pi, phone, or pc (magnetic disks (floppy/hdd) would be worrying, but we have none of those).

Just chiming in with my two cents. Neodymium magnets (rare earth magnets) are super fun and, depending on how huge they are, super dangerous (I use one at work that is a 3in cube which will break every bone in your hand if your hand gets caught between it and another piece of metal/magnet, thankfully it is encased!). Your application, no worries.

One thing to know though, neodymium are incredibly brittle and shatter very easily with high shock (meaning even the force of two magnets hitting each other can shatter 1/2in disks into thousands of pieces). The smaller they get, the less likely this is, but I recommend that if they are in direct contact with each other that you glue a piece of felt to the magnets to have some absorption. Even better, encase the magnet in epoxy so that there is a gap between the magnets touching.

If you encase the magnets, I don't think it honestly matters what size you get between either 1/4in disk or 5/32in disk, as this takes care of any problem of size sticking to the case that kite mentioned. The 1/4 will give more retention though and you'll have to figure out if it is enough or too much.

1/4inx1/16in disk

5/32inx1/16in disk

Has anyone had any progress on this? I accidentally bought some N45 strength neodymium magnets that, in a mock up, didn't do much of anything on holding the two halves of the case together. They should suffice for holding the battery cover on though, but definitely not the two case halves.

I just received some N52 strength (the strongest these get, I believe) neodymium magnets and I believe these may look promising. I haven't mocked them in a case and tried to pull them apart yet but just pulling them from each other, they are much stronger than the N45 ones. They can lift the weight of my small lamp on my workbench whereas the N45 ones don't even get it to budge before they let go.

gnarlynick wrote:Has anyone had any progress on this? I accidentally bought some N45 strength neodymium magnets that, in a mock up, didn't do much of anything on holding the two halves of the case together. They should suffice for holding the battery cover on though, but definitely not the two case halves.

I just received some N52 strength (the strongest these get, I believe) neodymium magnets and I believe these may look promising. I haven't mocked them in a case and tried to pull them apart yet but just pulling them from each other, they are much stronger than the N45 ones. They can lift the weight of my small lamp on my workbench whereas the N45 ones don't even get it to budge before they let go.

just been looking into magnets to secure my case, did you make any progress on your build using them?
thanks