Find a perfect way to mount small switches into mini racks

[geerlingguy]

There are various '200mm' switches on the market now—Mikrotik has a whole line, QNAP has a few, and random Chinese companies like GiGaPlus even have some.

But while the form factor is perfect for hard-mounting it to a mini rack, few manufacturers offer any way to actually do that. If they include rack ears, they either include one that's the right size, plus a long one to fill the space in a 19" rack... or they include two evenly-spaced ears for centering the device in a 19" rack.

Mikrotik actually introduced the RMK 2/10, which includes two ears suitable for mounting into a 10" rack (or if you don't break off the joining tab, you can join two of their 200mm devices side-by-side in one 19" rack!

QNAP ships a short + long ear combo with their half-width switches:

And they sell the SP-EAR-QSWHALFRACK-01 kit, which you could use and toss the extra long mount to use two short mounts and mount one of their switches in a half rack. It would be nice if they introduced a short ear kit with one or two short ears, for 10" rack mounting!

For other switches, like the GigaPlus 2.5G PoE+ Switch I'm testing in one of my racks, it comes with two medium-length ears, so you have to replace both.

I bought a Pelopy Universal Rack Mount Kit, and have tested it on the GigaPlus, but the screws stick out ever-so-slightly too much, meaning it won't install into the rack (at least not the fairly-rigid DeskPi RackMate structure, since I can't slightly deform the rails to push it in...).

I'm considering using a countersink bit to slightly chamfer the edges of the universal rails.

See my first comment below for an idea I have for a more universal kit we could maybe crowdsource...

[geerlingguy]

True Universal Rackmount Kit (Crowdsource idea)

If we had a simple set of two metal brackets, just like the Pelopy kit (pictured above), but without the screw guide channels drilled out in the 'X' pattern, it may be more useful—though requiring someone to have a drill and a chamfer bit.

You could use the chamfered rackmount ear screws included with your device, and just have some tiny holes drilled (or tiny indents) in certain places with a mapping of which holes to drill and chamfer for certain devices (e.g. QNAP, Mikrotik, GigaPlus for now... add more later as we find more 200mm wide switches that will fit).

[anthonycvella]

Has DeskPi any mention of designing a collection of universal attachment ears? Given they have the ability to mass-manufacture metal, it would be compelling if they could produce metal ear brackets for popular and common 10" rack hardware.

I had mentioned the Middle Atlantic PD-415R-SP to you on Reddit, and this is an example PDU that doesn't fit just right with the provided ears unfortunately.

I do also wonder if DeskPi would be open to manufacturing metal shelves/inserts for popular hard from the likes of QNAP, MikroTik, Ubiquiti, GigaPlus and ARRIS.

[beemo808]

I purchased a NICGIGA S25-0402P and it came with ears that fit the 10" rack perfectly but it doesn't look like it will fit the other 200mm switches due to the hole pattern, so if you only need 4 2.5g poe+ ports and 2 10g sfp ports, this will work without any modifications needed.

[wildegnux]

If the switches are small enough (i.e. not already 1U in height) then my 3D printed rack shelves should work for this. #14 I designed it specifically for switches but they hold any box-like object!

[anthonycvella]

I can confirm that the Pelopy Universal Rack Mount worked with my Middle Atlantic PD-415R-SP. No extra drilling of the mount was required.

[ngcard]

I found that the Tenda TEG1116M 16 Port Gigabit Switch will fit quite nicely in the otherwise unused space in the very bottom of the rack. I just used a small strip of velcro on each side on the bottom left and right to keep it in place. All 16 ports clear the front of the chassis. The patch panel fits snugly right above it.

[davidgibbons]

Spend some time this weekend trying to find a printable rack ear option that wasn't specific to a single device, best I've found is this openscad file that looks like it might be a good start: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3818324/files If you select "optional mount stabilizer" you get just a rack ear that still gives you some adjustable parameters.

[KuJoe]

I found that the Tenda TEG1116M 16 Port Gigabit Switch will fit quite nicely in the otherwise unused space in the very bottom of the rack. I just used a small strip of velcro on each side on the bottom left and right to keep it in place. All 16 ports clear the front of the chassis. The patch panel fits snugly right above it.

While looking at this switch I found another basically identical one from a different brand that was on sale so I grabbed it and it fit perfectly: YuLinca 16 Port Gigabit Ethernet Switch

I was going to use some Velcro to hold it together, but figured I'd put my 3D printer to use and created some brackets that fit perfectly and screwed into the bottom of my GeeekPi rack (adding my STLs here as I make them: https://github.com/KuJoe/10-Inch-Home-Lab)

[joemiller]

For other switches, like the GigaPlus 2.5G PoE+ Switch I'm testing in one of my racks, it comes with two medium-length ears, so you have to replace both.

I bought a Pelopy Universal Rack Mount Kit, and have tested it on the GigaPlus, but the screws stick out ever-so-slightly too much, meaning it won't install into the rack (at least not the fairly-rigid DeskPi RackMate structure, since I can't slightly deform the rails to push it in...).

I found this thread when I was hunting for a solution to mount the same GigaPlus 2.5G PoE+ Switch into a Tecmojo 6U 10" rack and I'm happy to report that these rack ears from "Be in Your Mind" (lol) worked perfectly. I picked them because they had low profile/flat-topped screws unlike the Pelopy rack ears in your picture above, so thank you for the inspiration!