Wendell has reviewed several Minisforum PCs. They are great and have multiple ways to get more out of your tiny PC. PCI-E ports, SSD connectivity, M.2 slots, etc.
Wendell has an adapter similar to this M.2 B & M-Key:
He wanted to put it in the Minisforum M.2 Slot, but there would be nowhere to put the new NIC.
Design
I unscrewed the NIC from the metal PCI-E attachment and I’m trying to create something to house it. Wendell had the idea to make a skirt-type design where it will attach to the backplate and be held to the bottom by screws.
I came up with this design, and it’s a WIP, but I think the concept is good:
The skirt has to be fairly tall because the cable has to go from the M.2 adapter to the top-side of the NIC PCB card. If it was shorter, there wouldn’t be enough room for the cable.
It’s basically a skirt to go around the backplate. To hold it in place I would need some loong and skinny screws.
I made the walls only 1mm thick because I wanted it to be bendy. If the walls are bent behind the original hooks on the backplate it could kind of be held in place.
The nic port looks a little weird because I didn’t make it big enough LOL I had to melt it some.
Todo
I want to make some way to hold the network card pcb in place better. In the version listed above ^ I have 2 posts to put the card on as well as a little catch on the back. I think these could be designed better, however.
I also don’t have the measurements for the dual port NIC so I kind of had to guess how far apart to make the 2nd opening. I will update that when Wendell gets it in.
3D Print the catches from the backplate onto the skirt so that the skirt slots into the bottom firmly.
So I used M3 heat set inserts for mounting as well as a 2mm lip around the RJ45 port to help hold it in place so the screws/inserts were not the only structural support.
What filament and printer are you working with?
Printables this is the model before I added the 2.5gb M.2 A+E card.
it looks like your printer could use some tuning based on the images.
What thickness is the wall design (not the wall thickness in your slicing software)
General Tuning questions:
Nozzle size, and material?
Nozzle and Bed temperature settings?
PLA brand or link?
Have you calibrated esteps?
Based on the images you posted I am wondering if you have tuned the filament flow because it looks like in some areas your under extruding and others your over extruding.
I wasn’t able to get long screws so zip ties came to rescue
I have following proposal for improvement of the design:
Please add some stiffness elements to the “skirt”. I know that initial design was made in the way so sides would bend a bit, but after all is stacked, I think more stiffness is needed.
As it is quite difficult to find long (~40-45mm) screws I propose add two mounting pads to each corner - one at the bottom of “skirt’s” corner to screw the “skirt” to minis’ case and another one in ~middle of “skirt’s” height (or exactly the distance of height of the “neck” of bottom plate’s mounting hole ) to screw the bottom cover to the “skirt” itself. Pardon my artistic abilities
