Reddit reviews Stratux Case with Fan, Clear Acrylic

I've been experimenting with various enclosures for my Stratux builds over the past year. These cases have included everything from a cardboard box from a KMASHI battery, plastic Chinese take-out containers, plastic RPi cases with bare-board Nooelec Mini SDRs sticking out the back, and /u/strangerwithadvice 's official acrylic case as listed on stratux.me.

For the RV, I had been using the "clear plastic RPi case with bare-board Nooelec Mini SDRs sticking out the back" for about half a year. While functional, it was a rat's nest of cables, and I wanted to get away from having unshucked SDRs tucked under the glareshield. I ran into problems with the MCX antenna connectors occasionally becoming loose in the sockets on the SDRs, and had to be strain-relieved to maintain a good signal path. Since this is a semi-permanent installation, I'm not concerned with battery life. However, thermal management and minimizing RFI / EMI were important.

My main goals for this installation, were therefore:

• Looks good.
  
• Small, but not necessarily minimalist package size.
  
• Robust; able to operate equally well in -20°F and 100°F, preferably without active cooling.
  
• Strong FIS-B reception and decent ADS-B / ADS-R / TIS-B reception
  
• Suitable for use under light IFR (i.e. no noticeable noise emissions)
  
• Compatible with 'gpsattitude' development.
  
  What you see in the linked imgur album is the end result of a couple of days of brainstorming and building. Key difference between this and the stratux.me builds are:
  
  
• Aluminum enclosure for the RPi3. A basic, silver-finish aluminum extrusion. Not terribly expensive ($11), and cutouts fit nicely to the connector shells on the RPi. It's enough inherent shielding to let a VK-172 consistently see 5m accuracy without using an extension cable.
  
• RTL-SDR Blog v3 SDRs. These have metal enclosures and thermal pads -- effectively, the case acts as a heatsink. This removes the need to actively cool the SDRs, like one typically needs to do on the nano-sized receivers. The front end is also designed to handle 1+ GHz signals better than stock SDRs.
  
• Homebuilt USB extension cables for the SDRs. I soldered these up in a couple hours from some connectors I had left over from another project. These allow the SDRs to lie flat on top of the enclosure, with a minimum of wiring.
  
• Generous use of 3M Dual-Lock tape to hold the SDRs to the enclosure, and to hold the enclosure to the glareshield. This gives about 3/16 inch of airspace between components to promote natural convection, and allows components to be easily removed.
  
  With /u/dmurray14 antennas installed directly to the SDRs and oriented parallel to the windscreen, the reception range is phenomenal. I saw 6 towers at 1500' AGL during a test flight near Minneapolis today, and previously had seen as many as 10 towers simultaneously up at 7500' AGL. Traffic (1090 MHz) is visible virtually to the horizon: 150-200 NM.

Here is the mobile version of your link

The clear ones will be back in a week or so,

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01ERQPPWU

with a minor modification - a hole in the end plate for either Vk-172 or an external Vk-162.

The tinted one, not sure.