Power Supply Crate

One of the annoyances of transporting our support gear has been finding ways to carry and stack the power supply that we use to recharge Odyssey IV's battery. The charging cable is 50 feet or so and 1" in diameter -- a bit difficult to wrap your hands around when it's all coiled up. The power supply itself is large and flat with protruding pieces on all sides (rackmount ears, knobs, and terminals).

To kill 2 birds with one stone, I made a crate that uses the power supply for its bottom.

One of the constraints I put on this project was to be able to get the power supply out without using tools. So, I made some notches for the ears to fit into instead of using the rack-mounting holes. This keeps the power supply from sliding around and also keeps a gap around the edge so that air can get into its vents.

The front part was a bit more interesting. I had to be able to access the knobs as well as leave enough room to lift the power supply out of the notches. On the other hand, I had to prevent the cable from spilling out. The solution was to have a large wooden latch that would rest on top of the supply to retain the cable but could be flipped up to remove the power supply.