September 1, 2015 – It took some planning, but I was finally able to move all my linux box computers to my desk. Previously, my Beaglebone Black was located underneath my LCD TV and my new Raspberry Pi 2 was located near the Cable Router on my wife’s night stand near the door of the bedroom. My original Raspberry Pi was in a box, put away, since I had to use its Ethernet cable for the new Blue-Ray players which I got for Father’s Day.
Now all three of the boxes are on my desk taped to a piece of wood. I know, it’s low tech. But using the screw holes that came with their plastic cases seemed too risky. There was no way from keeping the screw from touching the circuits on the case and therefore damaging the computers. The wood also houses my new Netgear 8 port Network Switch.
I initially did not know exactly where the switch and credit card size computer would sit on my desk. I was hoping to put them on top of something. But nothing flat was available. I watched a few videos on YouTube about my network switch (open box, and placement). And they gave me the idea to put the who setup on one piece of wood.
Getting it together.
The first thing I did was create the screw holes for the screws on which the network switch would sit and be held in place with. I had to do it twice as my first try was off. The switch did not sit square on the board. So I turned the board over and trace the switched outline on the wood. I then measured the distance of the holes on the switch to their location and then duplicated that on wood. To my surprise, it worked! I then placed the switch on the wood. Part one was done.
I was about to do the same with the two Raspberry Pi and the BeagleboneBlack but noticed that any screw would touch the computer boards. I ended up using Scotch tape to initially secure them to the wood board and then used Electrical Tape as a stronger measure. That too worked.
I then proceeded to hook the credit card size computers to the network switch and then turn them all on. Using a program called “Wireless Network Watcher” I was able to see the computer’s IP addresses. I was in business! Now the switch has 8 ports and I wanted to add all the computer’s possible to the switch so that they would have the much quicker Ethernet transfer speeds. But I had to place the board somewhere before going through the trouble of routing at least 4 more Ethernet cables through the maze of cabling that goes on behind my desk (speaker wires, DC power wires for each radio, etc).
At first I thought I would just place the board on top of my Uniden scanner. But after much trying and Ethernet cable shoving aside, I was one quarter inch too narrow to fit the board. I move a few things over and was able to place the board. But then I saw that the scanner was about an 1/8 of an inch too high to fit the board all the way in. On top of that, it would leave no real room for the computers to vent the heat they generate as their cases was be pressed under the wood shelves above them. I move the scanner to the left, after removing some DVD cases (silver and black ones). I then moved some of the components to the right just a little more to the right (a Sony Speaker in this case). And was then able to shove the whole shelf underneath the other wood shelf.
The whole setup looks like a flashing Christmas tree as the switch and the credit card size computers all constantly blink.It was then that I added the Ethernet cables for my Zbox, and desktop computer. Later on I added my Roku too. That totals out to six devices hooked up to the Netgear Network Switch. The cable from my router is a seventh connection (the one that feed the Internet to the switch) which leave one port open for future use. I am not sure if I will use that port to connect it to another Netgear switch which I may put on the TV stand which will feed four more devices including myBlue-Ray smart player and Apple TV.
