PC104p-Chassis

Dynamic Engineering has updated the PC104p-Chassis. Improvements include a larger heatsink while retaining the same maximum height and width to be compatible with previous revision implementations. Suitable for PC104, PC104p, PCI-104, and PCIe104 applications.

The chassis incorporates an extruded aluminum outer housing with machined end caps. The interface between the End Cap and Chassis includes a groove and gasket to support water tight operation at low pressures. The End caps are suitable for the addition of your connectors. The chassis is rugged and can work in a variety of environments.

The internal card cage is isolated with "bumper pads" from the external housing to provide vibration and shock absorption. A heat sink is built into the internal and external walls of the chassis on three sides to aide in heat transfer. The bottom surface is extended to create a mounting flange which can also be used for cooling in conductively cooled systems.

Standard and custom lengths, power supplies, Fan boards, Reverse Power Protection, custom machining, surface finish, and etching or silk screening are available options. A new shelf system has been added to allow for mounting SSD and other non-Stack HW to your system. Also available is an adapter for SSD type drives which occupies a single stack position.

The PCIe104, PCI-104, PC104p, PC104 Chassis comes in base sizes : 1-11 slots [an extrusion is used for the main body of the chassis making any length up to 24 in. possible]. The models are adaptable to allow any number of slots to be used up to the maximum for the chassis length. For example, if you need extra room for long connectors or bend radiius on stiff cabling order a longer chassis coupled with a shorter internal frame. For example, an 11 slot chassis with a 9 position internal card cage. For custom combinations please contact Dynamic Engineering.

In a typical system the first position in the stack is the power supply, the second the CPU and the rest IO or storage. With the range of cards available for PCI-104, PC104, PC104p and IP available most applications can be implemented with off-the-shelf hardware and a chassis. The PC104PWR28 can make a good power supply for PCI-104, PC104 and PC104p stacks or stacks with mixed cards. The 28V refers to aircraft 28V power. This supply has a wide range of input voltage and regulated protected outputs. The chassis is flexible and works with any assortment of cards.


Image above shown with thermal / vibration mount spring

To use the chassis: First, build your stack with standard spacers etc. Second attach to the rear plate with spacers and screws. Third add spacers to the front side to fill in the unused positions and attach to the internal cage front bezel. Attach shelving system if in use. Four screws and 4 nuts for the stack plus 4 more screws for the side supports. "rapid assembly!" We can provide additional assembly and test services to install the power supply, CPU, IO etc. shipping a completed unit to you.

Click on play to see videos for disassembly/reassembly of the inner chassis and outer chassis. Click the box for full screen. ESC returns to standard page. Click the download button to watch on your local machine - use when your internet bandwidth is too low to properly support the video.

Side View of Chassis Shown with installed PC104p boards and HDD adapter

Angled view of chassis. Shown with installed PC104p boards and HDD adapter.
Expand to full screen to see chassis fin detail.


To complete with the outer housing: slide the assembly into the outer housing and secure that. The outer housing is designed to have gaskets and provide a sealed environment. The front and rear outer housing can be used to mount your system connectors. Dynamic Engineering can arrange to have custom cut-outs, and silk-screen for your chassis We can design connector plates to interface with cables. The end cap plates for the internal chassis can also be cut-out to allow for deeper connectors. One option is to use a smaller frame within a longer chassis to allow room for a hard drive or other custom applications. The chassis is designed to allow for air cooled operation as well as being conduction cooled.


Previous revision chassis with smaller heat sink.

The internal and external heat sink built into the chassis wall can allow internal air cooling too be used in a sealed environment. With a fan card added to your stack the heat from your CPU etc. can be transferred to the sidewall and to the outside with the aide of the heatsinks. Spring steel provides a direct thermal path from the internal frame to the external chassis [not shown in pictures].

The internal hardware is rigidly mounted to the stack and shock / vibration isolated to the side wall with the bumper pads. The shorter boxes come with 8 bumper pads for the corners plus two for the end caps and the longer [7 slots and more] come with 12 bumper pads plus two for the end caps. The end cap pads are shaped to allow maximum area for connector penetration.

Plenty of room is left for cabling along the sides of the chassis from the cards to the panel. The cable area is approximately 1 x 3.375 on each side of the chassis. The cable routing space coincides with the connector area of the PC104p to make it easy to install and secure the cables within the internal frame. With customized panel cut-outs you have have any IO you require.


The internal frame end plates are designed to allow for cabling and connector penetration from the chassis end cap.

The end plates are designed to support gaskets; EMI gaskets are now a standard feature.

The bottom plate comes with mounting slots to make it easy to attach to your system. The bottom plate can be used for additional cooling in a conductive cooling environment - cold plate attachment etc.

The PC104p Chassis and enclosed stack will need power distribution. Any PC104 compatible supply can be used. The PC104pPWR12 and PC104pPWR28 designs are recommended to convert from 12V or 28V [14-36] power rails to the +5, +3.3, +12, -12 and -5.5 you may need for your stack. The PC104p-COOL card can be used to provide internal air-flow if your hardware has high power dissipation concentrated in a CPU etc. The "Cool" card has 2 fan positions, the fans can be oriented in either direction, and can be powered from either the PCI or PC104 rails. A fan board is a good addition for any high powered application to keep the power supply running cool. In addition the PC104p-RPP design provides reverse power protection for your power supply. The design uses FET´s instead of diodes for a very small voltage drop. The connector placement and pin definitions are optimized to work with the PC104pPWR cards.

If you have custom requirements please call or e-mail us with the details.
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