would putting PCB's in a 1U rack enclosure work?

[dont-tase-me-bro]

I was thinking about building a rack system where I patch everything into a switcher (like RJM's Effect Gizmo) and then control them with a foot switching unit.  This way I can have more control over MIDI stuff.

For the non-MIDI stuff I would build myself, I was thinking about just putting a bunch in a 1U rack enclosure, patch them into the switcher and I can turn them on/off with the foot switcher unit.  I've built dozens of pedals, but the grey area for me is if I'm missing something.  I would just go DC/in/out on the back panel, pots/switches on the front.  I figured no 3PDT, just activate that pedal's loop with the foot switcher.  I wasn't sure if I was missing something with grounding, or if I omitted the 3PDT, would it not just be always on. 

This is the enclosure I was looking at.  Hammond makes one too, but there's is painted on the inside which I figured would mess the grounding up unless I scraped it off.

https://www.budind.com/product/chassis-box/small-rack-mount-chassis-box-series/ch-14402/#group=series-products&external_dimensions_group=0&internal_dimensions=0

Thanks,
Pat

[jimilee]

Yessir, it's been done a number of times. I think it's really a cool idea. Seems like someone at pedalpcb had a cool set up.


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[jwin615]

Fine for non-vintage fuzz circuits that you would want first in chain.
Though, you're going to have a lot of wasted space in that deep enclosure.
Something like a shallow 3RU box would be better. Mount the PCBs vertically on the front panel. Could get close to a dozen circuits in there I bet. Maybe more.

[jimilee]

Yep, here's a great example.

https://forum.pedalpcb.com/threads/seeking-advice-for-creating-mini-pedal-x-4-frankenrack.23844/


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[dont-tase-me-bro]

Thanks for the input - I figured removing the 3PDT would make it so it's always on, but wasn't sure if I was missing something. 

The switcher has 12 loops so I could probably put 6 or 8 in the 1U rack, and then have a couple left over for time based MIDI stuff and if I ever get around to it, small Eurorack.